I just watched some video about Yakutsk Siberia which is meant to be the coldest city in the world. Thought “Those poor bastards, wonder what they need to wear indoors when it is -40 outside.”
Turns out a pissing tank top and PJ bottoms. We really need to start demanding better things in this country don’t we?
I’m also reading a book about coal mining. All the unpaid labour, minimising wages and dodgy things the bosses did then still happens now. Now I’m not a tankie so don’t get the wrong idea here. But why are we all okay living like this I don’t get it? Why is the UK population so forgiving at living it shit conditions.
Also I’m going to jump in before anyone says no insulation keeps you cold in the summer. Insulation works both ways, it can keep heat out or it can keep heat in. It’s better in the summer and in the winter.
Siberia video in question:
https://youtu.be/K0z7Avc9ZtY?si=_KTob2YYMn2HLwkv
Also I hope I havent broken any rules. I can’t see any. This seems mostly news posts but I guess text posts are allowed? Sorry if not.
Sorry, not in the UK, post popped up on “All”.
You guys don’t have insulation requirements?
I suspect it’s more that the requirements are lower and the buildings are on average older than in Yakutsk, which contribute to less effective insulation.
You landlord when you talk about what they need to do in regards to mould or insulation in your house.
My last place wouldn’t let me go into the attic to see what insulation was up there and on the energy certificate the guy wrote “assumed” for the attic. Now sure there is a really low minimum level as a landlord and sure there is a free money given to you from the government if you install good insulation in the attic. But what’s the point? It’s just so much effort to make a couple of phone calls. It’s far easier to just add to the contract that the tenant needs to heat their house sufficiently to prevent mould, no excuses. Then it’s not your problem!
I would support additional taxes on Landlords inversely proportional to the energy rating of the house. Currently there is no incentive for landlords to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. At least when you “own” a house the action to improve it is on you.
I’d support some benefit for improving houses that are owned, too.
It’s a bit frustrating if you decide to improve the insulation, but it doesn’t move the needle on property value, because a large enough chunk of the market does not care.
the tenant needs to heat their house sufficiently to prevent mould,
And make sure to open windows regularly to stop condensation, coincidentally letting out all the bastard heat.
Who needs extractor fans with gas heating?
The draft will sort it anyway.
Lol no amount of heating or ventilating with negate the fact that when it rains hard outside it also rains inside my house. My landlord doesn’t give a fuck but I still let him know every single time it is raining indoors so when he inevitably tries to shaft me out of my deposit I have records of telling him it needs fixing every fucking time -_-
We absolutely do, on new properties, and on change-of-use.
And we have requirements that rented properties have to at least hit a certain level.
As wanderer says below, because of the state of the rental market, there are a lot of shitty landlords just ignoring what they can.
Spent a winter in a semi in Manchester. Coldest winter of my life due to no insulation and the constant draft.
I thought the material used in the US wood, gypsum, etc made insulation more essential compared to stone/brick construction often found in Europe.
Can’t recall where I heard that thing so take with a huge grain of salt
In my town we’re more concerned with intraday temp cycle, so we just add another layer of brick. Store heat during day and release at night. I’m 32 and have never used a central heating system once in my life, shit’s awesome
Thanks. And, by wood and gypsum, I meant the construction material besides the insulation
Bricks used in houses have big air gaps in the middle (which you can also insulate if you want to, both inside and outside.
That said you can do a lot with mass. I lived in a concrete building in a place with similar extremes and it did keep the heat very well, on account of those walls being half a meter thick. The glass windows were so bad at insulation by comparison that you could sometimes feel a breeze coming from the panels even when they were fully sealed just because the inside air was dozens of degrees warmer than the glass.
Depends a lot on the construction and age, but there’s really no type of construction that doesn’t need insulation.
There’s a specific UK issue though. For some reason they’re falling behind and have been for some time. F.i. The rest of northern Europe are using triple or quadruple pane windows, while many houses in UK still have single pane windows.
The windows alone being 2-3 generations behind code is only part of it. Loft insulation is also far behind:
Also older housing stock. My house is over 120 years old so that does limit done of what you can do to improve things. That said with decent windows and loft insulation there is something to be said for the thermal properties of a bunch of stone.
120 years ago is about the time they started doing double brick walls. Leaving air between the inner and outer brick walls was basically the first kind of insulation.
In the 1970s they figured out to put polystyrene beads in the space between the walls. This idea has recently been improved by better materials, so it’s still possible to update the insulation on these old houses. Whether it’s financially feasible is a different question.
Another method is to put more insulation on the inside, but this takes up space and early attempts in the 1950-1980s proved to do very little except creating a fire hazard. If a house has those old panels on the walls, it’s probably better to remove them.
A neighbour of mine recently put very thick insulation on the outside of the house. Must have cost a fortune and it looks weird, but I guess it works really well. It also requires that all windows are moved, so it’s probably easier to just build a new house.
So there a few options, but money is likely better spend on changing the roof, windows or the heat source.
That’s probably not because of good insulation, but just because of central heating system in most of the apartment buildings
People build housing to the specs their environment requires. The UK has extremely stable moderate temperatures so doesn’t put the extra cost into insulation or central cooling.
Not really true. UK definitely has a history of under-insulation compared to other European countries with similar climates (like Denmark for example).
Last time I was there visiting a relative I was shocked to find that the “mailbox” was just a hole cut on the door. Like, it was raining outside and they just had a big hole on the front door, which itself was just a wooden plank. May as well have blasted the heating straight out the window.