In quite a few cases we’re using components made by German or other continental European companies – either made in Germany or made elsewhere (e.g. China) but distributed via Germany. In general, it’s proving significantly more economical to source those direct from Germany rather than via UK distributors.
Since the UK Passivhaus industry is still relatively immature, it’s not a surprise that most of the Passivhaus-certified components come from Germany, Austria and surrounding countries where Passivhaus is a more established standard. However, the components that need to be Passivhaus-certified tend to be big-ticket items like windows and external doors, or MVHR units and suchlike where using UK distributors and installers is generally a wise precaution.
For some other items, we’re using German manufacturers for non-Passivhaus reasons. For example:
- For home automation the KNX standard (what used to be known as EIB) is the chosen option and right now the market for KNX is much more active in Germany than in the UK. As a result, it is often better to buy KNX equipment direct from Germany.
- In particular, I had a very positive experience buying KNX devices manufactured by MDT Technologies from eibmarkt.com
- For taps, I’m a fan of Hansgrohe because of the consistently high quality of their products and all of the taps and bath fillers will be made by them. In the UK, Hansgrohe are perceived as a premium brand and priced accordingly – even from discount Internet retailers. For whatever reason they’re significantly cheaper bought from Internet retailers in Germany.
- For example, the Hansgrohe Matris S Single Lever Basin Mixer (31060000) is RRP 234 inc VAT in the UK but only €128.57 inc VAT from skybad.de and at today’s exchange rate that’s almost exactly £100. Obviously you can beat the RRP by shopping around in the UK, but not by that much.
The shipping charges are generally very reasonable (e.g. €19 for all the taps) and mostly the shipment is handled end-to-end via leading courier companies such as DHL and DPD which are very familiar names to UK consumers.
For any eligible building materials, the HMRC let you reclaim VAT paid in any EU country the same as if it had been paid in the UK.
For something like a tap there’s absolutely no difference between the product you would buy in Germany and the one you would buy in the UK. For other products (kitchen appliances, for example) there are more likely to be differences in the labels on the front panel which would be in German rather than English, and any portable electrical appliances would come with the wrong sort of plug, and swapping it might affect the guarantee, so for those I’d recommend buying from the UK.
Buying from Germany? Top tip: Buy *direct* from Germany by Marsh Flatts Farm Self Build Diary is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.