Insulate article in Green Lib Dem website

You could start with at least a nod to

and a summary - eg

"In theory, insulating a building sounds good. In practice, there are many risks. Most old walls "breathe". Stop that and you risk damp, mould, rot and more. It needs careful planning and skill."

Makes nuclear at, what was it, less than £100 look cheap.

Got rid of that before insulating.

Old nuclear is profitable at £40, and gas too. Coal was profitable at £30 or even less. New nuclear is aksing for £80-£90 but I suspect if we break somewhat free of an anti-nuclear EU sensible regulations could be framed that would bring the capital cost down to a level where £40-£60 was profitable.

No windfarm works at less than £100 and around £150+ is the breakeven rate for offshore wind, and probably large scale solar.

Well, there is "I've heard the Conservatives are cutting building regulations 'red tape' on insulation etc, "

Reference? Link to the new toned down building regs approved docs etc? I thought the article was about insulation, not political points scoring.

Why the Grenfell reference? Conjecture on the cause, and an irrelevance to low rise domestic dwellings.

"Deaths from fire and electrocution fall as building regulations improve"? Deaths from electrocution actually increased following the introduction of part P.

The effect of much "new" building regulation is to effectively discourage people improving their homes, by making it either too expensive, or too onerous by introducing bureaucracy into what should have been a simple process. In many cases its counter productive.

Have you submitted building notices to cover the improvement you are making to a thermal element of your home? Have you met the required U Values on the whole area for example when you cross the boundary on the amount you can change before the requirement to upgrade the whole thing kicks in?

You won't be one of the less aware then.

Rolls of insulation are a fairly quick and easy thing to lay , effectively insulating pipe work and tanks takes a little longer, easy for Grabbit and Run Builders and Son to bodge up or not do, particularly if the householder was elderly and not capable of ascending into the loft to check the job.

G Harman

In fact insulating was the last job, as there was running cables for satellite, TV/FM aerial to do first and for lights in the (previous people had all this cabling external up and down the outside walls but I had all that removed).

Unlikely since he's too busy spouting bollocks.

Too many to list, but for a start "Deaths from fire and electrocution fall as building regulations improve". Wrong, Part P of building regulations when introduced did as predicted and increased the number of deaths from electrocution. Sound bites and instant answers are nearly always nonsense.

"The solution is not to strip all external insulation from all buildings - that would cause even more deaths from cold". Stripping insulation from tower blocks would almost certainly have little or no effect on deaths from cold, there is too much heat transfer from other units for the temperature to drop to dangerous levels.

"I, we, the country, the planet, cannot afford to heat every room in every big house to summer temperatures in winter." Actually you can, and should. The need to heat isolated individual rooms is driven by the poor insulation and ventilation of many older homes which leads to wide variations in temperature in different rooms. This in turn means inefficient heating is often being used. Bodges such as randomly sticking bit of insulation board up here and there and blobbing foam around far from improving insulation ruin the natural ventilation these houses were designed for and make condensation and mould growth a problem.

" In the winter I heat just one room, and long johns are compulsory for all guests". Typical politician "you will all wear hair shirts". If houses were insulated and ventilated to Passive House standards a moderate sized 4 bedroom house would in the worst case winter day require about 1.5kW to keep the whole house at a comfortable temperature. Insulating new houses is easy, retrofitting old ones largely a waste of time. Running around blobbing foam around the house appeals to politicians because it is "doing something" That "something" is ineffective matters not.

"I thought my old house would take me a year or two to do up, but I've been over ten years at it! " The best solution would have been to take it down and start again not bodge a rotting carcass with blobs of foam.

"Because it's stone outside it would be a sin to clad it" Herein lies the LibDem problem. They want to appeal to the woolly muesli munchers in "period" housing in the right neighbourhoods but lack the courage to tell them their affection for old junk housing is wrong and the stuff needs demolishing. Instead they want to inflict misery on others so the yogurt eaters can stay in their leaky energy wasting pits.

" I believe in Governments taxing" Ah - now that bit I believe."

The tories in coalition watered down the improvements libdem Minister mentioned in article wanted to do to new buildings and rented. They have spoken and written about it

"It sounds to me like the wrong insulation was attached shoddily, with vertical gaps left behind it which chimney-ed the fire." shows that it is my conjecture

Didnt know that - but I've read elsewhere that thats why we have building regulations and deaths do decrease agfter sensible regulations

Yes.

Generally deaths do decrease with building regulations against using flamma ble materials etc. There may have been a glitch with electrocution. Are you saying that if all regulations and inspections were deleted cowboys wouldn t save money with unsafe building work?

Many poor people cannot afford to heat well and eat well, removing insulati on would make this worse.

The government say they cant afford to build new council houses, now you're suggesting mass demolition of old housing stock?

Yes if old draughts are sealed you should look at ventilation. Victorian houses evolved to use the best techniques available at the time, they can be improved.

What I am doing is not random, I am insulating and draught sealing the area s which leak most heat. I was warning about cowboys leaving gaps in the dif ficult places like under the floors (where the wall is pierced with holes f or the joists to sit on)

I dont think the neighbours through the party wall would have been pleased!

What? You want to clad listed buildings with kingspan and render?

So you dont believe in the NHS, social security, road building, bridges, se wers, police, armed forces etc ?

george

I have 2 arrays, 6 x 330kWp in one and 8 in the other. both were about 80% covered in snow at 10:00 this morning but still kicking out 500W, enough to stop the meter from spinning.

Doesn't take much sun to warm them up enough to clear the remaining snow though.

;)

Why do you immediately think of council houses? In many areas demolition of rows of privately owned Victorian terraces would allow construction of a mix of well-insulated houses and flats (at a higher density) without any public money.

But that would require (among other things) a move away from the Britain-in-aspic mindset epitomised by Prince Charles. And by the ever-growing number of listed buildings.

Quite senseless to destroy large quantities of housing when new housing can be built elsewhere. And Britain is certainly not short of elsewhere.

NT

Its increrdibly short of elsewhere unless yuou wnat to make it like India

So it isn't that they plan to change them but that they have done so several years ago while you were their partners?

"My mind is made up - do not confuse me with facts" There are so many "self appointed expert" opinions on that fire I'm surprised anyone still thinks an enquiry is necessary.

We have many building regulations because of the pernicious influence on pompous mendacious politicians of single issue pressure and trade groups promoting the interests of their masters. Traditionally MEP's have been particularly open to bribes. UK politicians are somewhat easier, simply treating them as if they are important is usually all it takes.

As an example thanks in no small part to FENSA and green idiots a doors and windows are now a "controlled fitting" under the Building Regulations. If you have a rotten window frame and want to replace it you have a few choices :-

1. Have it replaced by a FENSA member at an inflated price.
2. Change it yourself ( a minor job) but you have to apply for building regulation approval (several days delay) pay about £150 and wait for 2 inspections from a jobsworth who won't bother turning up.
3. Leave it as it is leaking heat. This is the option often chosen by those on limited income who cannot afford the gold plated FENSA prices.
4. (the usual one for those able to) - change it yourself and don't tell anyone).

How has this made things better?

Do you not think it is a good idea to reduce the burden of unnecessary red tape by properly assessing the cost and effectiveness of regulations before and after they are introduced?

They do? I presume you have some facts to support this from the ONS showing the impact on death rates after the introduction of new building regulations?

The more regulations the more cowboys. People can't afford "accredited" companies so they use the cheapest. Small competent companies are driven out of business because they can't afford pointless "registration fees".

You end up with the ridiculous situation that the man who teaches apprentice electricians is not permitted to fit a fan in his own kitchen but a student of his is allowed to do it as they work part time for a Part P registered company. Similarly an industrial electrician of decades experience can't fit a new light in his bathroom, an apprentice electrician can working for a Part P company can.

Removing insulation from tower blocks will not make internal temperatures dramatically worse.

Building new housing to Passive House standards would not be a significant added expense on a new house.

Only way if you are serious about saving earthworms or whatever the LibDem animal of the week is.

Especially by demolition. Very few people treat cars as lifelong friends. They use them then change them when they become uneconomical to maintain or whatever. Yet we expect houses to last for ever. If the house is beyond its sell by date it should be replaced by something better, not patched with blobs of foam.

It is bodging. The politicians fix. "Don't just stand there - -do something"

"what should I do?" "Anything as long as it is doing something.

It the mindset that needs changing - instead of venerating crumbling heaps get rid of them and put something better in their place.

Good gracious, no. I want to demolish the heaps. The number of listed buildings in England and Wales , about 500,000, is ridiculous.

There are millions more houses which are simply crap and should go the way of the Model T Ford.

The drop in investment happened when David Cameron's government ended all taxpayer-funded energy efficiency programmes in England.

It also halved the UK-wide obligation on energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency improvements.

NT