Monday 14 February 2022

They own land, give them money

Now the architects are urging the government to make houses worth more using public money tackle the climate crisis by giving grants to put external wall insulation on all interwar houses. I suspect they will be pushing at an open door.

Of course no-one is looking at what happened when the Welsh Government tried the same thing, leaving houses sodden with condensation and freezing cold, much colder than they were before.

14 comments:

Doonhamer said...

Gummer? Bloody Gummer.
Say no more.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, that is truly an insane plan. The Institute of External Insulators must have made a handsome donation to the Tory Party.

mombers said...

Any ideas on how to reduce the cost of heating homes then? Fracking our own gas won't bring prices down unless the government forces it to be sold below international market rates. Seems a bit silly to be pumping heat out of homes unnecessarily. Surely not controversial?

Lola said...

Mombers. We wrap up in warm clothes....

mombers said...

@L I wrap in warm clothes too - 17C is my max inside. But I don't particularly like sending Mr Putin, MBS et al any more than I have to, and also prefer spending my money on other hydrocarbons like ethanol

Bayard said...

M, it's difficult. Before oil fired central heating became widespread, and, when the oil companies first started pushing it, it was thought they were onto a loser, Britain being such a warm country, 55-60F was considered warm inside, around 15C. Your body adjusts to the ambient temperature, which is why you feel so hot at first when you go to a hot country, then feel so cold when you come back to the UK, so whacking the internal temperatures up by 10C hasn't made anybody warmer, just poorer. All pre-war housing was built based on this level of internal heat. That's part of the idea behind EPCs, to show prospective buyers how easy or hard to heat their new house is going to be, although it has been high-jacked to a large extent by Alarmism. Really, the only answer is to move to a newer and better-insulated house. There is a soon-reached limit to the things you can do to retrofit insulation into an existing house without there being, often fairly damaging side-effects. The quickest win is to cut down on the air-change rate, but that causes condensation and rampant mould.

Lola said...

B - totally agree. Ice on the inside of my bedroom windows in London in the '50's/'60's when I was a kid. Didn't phase me at all. And my house is relatively cold now. Except in Kitchen where we have an oil fired Aga which is ace for Mrs L who is retired and is home all day. Also she does a lot of cooking incl' home made bread. Mmm. Rest of the house I go round tuning off rads. And sleep with window open whatever the weather. Just e.g. to your comment

Robin Smith said...

Is there anyone here, who still believes that both smart and stupid people, actually follow the science?

Anyone at all?

mombers said...

I'm sure some of you would dispute the science but there is very clear evidence that cold homes cause early deaths, particularly amongst the elderly. I'm all for reducing the number of old people on benefits. But not this way, better to increase the state pension age to a level that doesn't impinge on the property rights of the working age population too much. Also enhance property rights for labour and capital so that people can build up private assets to retire on

Bayard said...

Mombers, well, yes, old people shouldn't live in freezing cold houses. The answer to that is for old people to either spend more on heating, wear warmer clothing or to move to an easier-to-heat (and smaller, in most cases) house, not for Tom, Dick and Harry, all of working age and healthy to be given public money to have their houses covered with polyurethane or fibreglass. This is just the PWIM argument applied to heating bills.

Robin Smith said...

It's so simple right Bayard. All you need are the facts. And to follow the science.

Lola said...

RS M. More accurately than 'follow the science' just 'use some common sense'.

Robin Smith said...

Lola, you have not watched Rumpole of the Bailey then?

Physiocrat said...

I can't see why external insulation would cause problems due to condensation. The weakness is that the exterior of the building is subject to thermal street.

Internal insulation will lead to condensation if there is not an effective vapour barrier.