Jacob
New Luddism. Wake up and resist.
Off to the pub of course!
Power cuts seem to last just seconds nowadays unless there's a major job on the line somewhere. Had several during recent thunderstorms. No prob except computers switching off
Did you see the report that boilers sales are to stop 2025
- Thread starter devonwoody
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Power cuts seem to last just seconds nowadays unless there's a major job on the line somewhere. Had several during recent thunderstorms. No prob except computers switching off
Blackswanwood
Still Learning
Roy - you seem to have a real downer on new build development and local councils? New builds are built to current Building Regs which make them safer and better insulated than those of previous generations. Local Councils get voted out if they make planning decisions that the electorate don't agree with. My experience is that Local Councils are caught trying to balance the need for more housing supply with a whole host of other pressures. Brown paper envelopes full of cash are not a feature.
I'll declare a conflict - my wife is on the board of a small regional house builder.
Cheers
Yes. Because most of the world lived in tents and huts.
Jacob
New Luddism. Wake up and resist.
No. Because we had hardly begun using coal and oil.
Bojam
Established Member
Compared to what? Poor quality older housing stock presumably? Well, while that may be true, there is no doubt that house builders could do a lot more to improve energy efficiency of new builds. Passive house standards are probably too much to aim for, but the regs should set much higher standards than currently required. I don't believe it would even add that much cost (some for sure) but would need some substantive changes in building practices.
A long time ago my father was a builder. After he died my mother told me he had a list of every town and county councillor in Cornwall, Devon and west Somerset that could be bribed and what they were best bribed with (he was straight as a die and I doubt it was ever used, but he liked to know who or what he was dealing with). An acquaintance had a similar list, but (national) of MPs. I can't imagine things are too different now. I know cases over the last few decades of developments where bribery was undoubtedly a feature but couldn't be proved.
Precisely.
The only practical way to get to net zero would be to switch to nuclear power big time. Cluttering up the countryside with windmills and solar panels is an environmental disaster. The tons of plastic required for ground source heat pumps is not much better, and made from fossil fuel by the way.
I bet the "ban" on gas boilers will become a ban on "gas-only" boilers, and they will keep installing them provided they can be switched to hydrogen later. Hydrogen is probably the only practical method to store vast amounts of electricity with today's tech, especially when the underground gas storage caverns run dry.
I bet the "ban" on gas boilers will become a ban on "gas-only" boilers, and they will keep installing them provided they can be switched to hydrogen later. Hydrogen is probably the only practical method to store vast amounts of electricity with today's tech, especially when the underground gas storage caverns run dry.
gregmcateer
Established Member
The aim is to be carbon neutral by 2050. Apparently the only in depth study and costing of this has been done by New Zealand, and extrapolating these figures to suit our much larger population, this will cost the UK £440,000,000,000 every single year until then. Go figure.
That's nearly ten rolls of Downing St wallpaper!
eribaMotters
Established Member
In 2017 we moved into a 1970 bungalow, about 85m2 footprint. Monthly gas standing order for heating and cooking was £90 and we could not get the house warm. Bungalows will always been more expensive to run.
We have added 30m2 to the living space and a 50m2 attached garage/workshop. New regs meant 100mm cavity insulation, 150mm is between the new roof timbers, I've put 350mm in the loft, 1/2 the house has 200mm under the floor, the existing building has been wrapped with 60mm of foam before a re-render and high quality double glazing has been fitted. My standing order now looks like £50 a month. This is a result of newer building regs.
Whilst not a perfect result this is a giant step forwards and reflects what is achievable, albeit with a higher initial outlay. We will never get things perfect as room for improvement will always exist, but we can make improvements to reduce our energy consumption.
Colin
We have added 30m2 to the living space and a 50m2 attached garage/workshop. New regs meant 100mm cavity insulation, 150mm is between the new roof timbers, I've put 350mm in the loft, 1/2 the house has 200mm under the floor, the existing building has been wrapped with 60mm of foam before a re-render and high quality double glazing has been fitted. My standing order now looks like £50 a month. This is a result of newer building regs.
Whilst not a perfect result this is a giant step forwards and reflects what is achievable, albeit with a higher initial outlay. We will never get things perfect as room for improvement will always exist, but we can make improvements to reduce our energy consumption.
Colin
Bojam
Established Member
Well done! You say "this is a result of newer building regs". So what you did was required or you went beyond the minimum spec?
Cooper
Established Member
Plastic is amazing stuff and appropriate for all sorts of environmentally sustainable things. What we have a problem with is single use plastic and mountains of un-recycled waste.
Lets have more posts like Colin's about successful ways to leave our children and grandchildren a world fit to live in, not excuses why that is too inconvienient for the time being.
Plastic is terrible stuff, made from fossil fuel, does not biodegrade, and in most cases there are a much more environmentally friendly alternatives. When those ground source heat pump fields have passed their useful life, is someone going to dig all that plastic pipe up and dispose of it properly? Nope, they'll just trench through it and lay some more. It amazes me how much environmental damage people are willing to do to save some carbon. Like the all the nasties used in the manufacture of solar panels, or electric car batteries, and the cost to the environment to make them. And when those solar panels and batteries die, what are they going to do with them?
doctor Bob
Established Member
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I wonder if one or two punters are waiting to pounce and hijack the thread for political reasons ............
seems like you give em their own space and yet they still want to mess up good threads over here.
I suppose it's like kids trying to escape from the playpen, and if everyone is like minded (sandals, socks and beards) in the loonies space there is no one to argue with.
seems like you give em their own space and yet they still want to mess up good threads over here.
I suppose it's like kids trying to escape from the playpen, and if everyone is like minded (sandals, socks and beards) in the loonies space there is no one to argue with.
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Ours is a large house built in the 1890s. Our climate is more extreme than the UK - I have known it to be -39C here. We replaced our oil-burning boiler with a GSHP and it heats the house at lower cost than the old oil-based system. We are quite happy with it.
We did not increase the size of our radiators, and the GSHP is not connected to any under-floor heating. Either would work well with the GSHP and might reduce our running costs, but have not proved necessary.
We did not increase the size of our radiators, and the GSHP is not connected to any under-floor heating. Either would work well with the GSHP and might reduce our running costs, but have not proved necessary.
I have no problems when development is linked to local economic growth but not when it is linked to a local plan that all councils have had to produce that is generic, not based on actual local needs. The main employment in the area is tourism, cattle farming and retirement, with only retirement increasing and good jobs few and far between so to just keep building is an enviromental disaster and delivers nothing to the local communities. By keeping to smaller numbers of houses on more sites they do not have to assist with infrastructure or amenities which again are already stretched, I have a thirty two mile round trip to a dentist and people bus kids sixty miles to school each day so where is all the sense in this.
We have had five big developments in our area and all had very strong opposition, one on the grounds that there is photographic evidence that it floods very badly and the council actually rejected two but all have gone ahead because the councils decision was over turned. If you really want to find out about building standards do what I did a while back, visit a site but do not look at the show home, instead look at the ones under construction and you may then feel different.
All these current builds only comply with outdated building regs, they are not the housing of the future and as already said a radical shakeup is urgently needed.
Imagine if the walls had 400 mm or more insulation and they had Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery systems rather than extractors pumping your warm air out. It is easier and more cost effective to build the insulation in rather than retrofit, just not as profitable.
If walls had 400mm or more of insulation, people would have rooms the size of a phone box.
AJB Temple
Finely figured
There must come a point of rapidly diminishing returns with insulation.
Jacob
New Luddism. Wake up and resist.
The inevitable increases in the cost of heating will alter the balance!
Ditto the cost of travel - there are big changes on the way if climate change is to be tackled.
