Government's 'green' Standards To Add £7000 To New Build Housing From Spring

[Turnbull2000]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/pro...icle6816356.ece

[codeine]

Only property developers would charge £7,000 for a bit of insulating foam.

[Guest sillybear2]

Only property developers would charge £7,000 for a bit of insulating foam.

Given the ridiculous densities of new build, adding just 10cm to the width of the walls probably uses up £7k of land!

[CarbonBasedLifeform]

Given the ridiculous densities of new build, adding just 10cm to the width of the walls probably uses up £7k of land!

lol great post

[Mr Punter]

Given the ridiculous densities of new build, adding just 10cm to the width of the walls probably uses up £7k of land!

Here we go:

Small 2 storey detached house, originally 9m * 7m internally = 63m per floor - 126m2.

New super insulated house - extra 10cm insulation = 8.8m * 6.8m = 59.84m per floor - 119.68m.

Suppose we sell at £2k per metre

House 1 = £252,000

House 2 = £239,360

Difference = £12,640.

There would be less of a difference for a semi and even less for a mid terrace. Maybe not such a silly bear after all!

[Sledgehead]

touche

(aka Climate camp protesters target bank )

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/science/...ings&st=cse

The Federal Building in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, features an extensive use of natural light to illuminate offices and a white roof to reflect heat.

It has LEED certification, the country’s most recognized seal of approval for green buildings.

But the building is hardly a model of energy efficiency. According to an environmental assessment last year, it did not score high enough to qualify for the Energy Star label granted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which ranks buildings after looking at a year’s worth of utility bills.

The building’s cooling system, a major gas guzzler, was one culprit. Another was its design: to get its LEED label, it racked up points for things like native landscaping rather than structural energy-saving features, according to a study by the General Services Administration, which owns the building.

Builders covet LEED certification — it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — as a way to gain tax credits, attract tenants, charge premium rents and project an image of environmental responsibility. But the gap between design and construction, which LEED certifies, and how some buildings actually perform led the program last week to announce that it would begin collecting information about energy use from all the buildings it certifies.

Buildings would provide the information voluntarily, said officials with the United States Green Building Council, the nonprofit organization that administers the LEED program, and the data would be kept confidential. But starting this year, the program also is requiring all newly constructed buildings to provide energy and water bills for the first five years of operation as a condition for certification. The label could be rescinded if the data is not produced, the officials said.

The council’s own research suggests that a quarter of the new buildings that have been certified do not save as much energy as their designs predicted and that most do not track energy consumption once in use. And the program has been under attack from architects, engineers and energy experts who argue that because building performance is not tracked, the certification may be falling short in reducing emissions tied to global warming.

Some experts have contended that the seal should be withheld until a building proves itself energy efficient, which is the cornerstone of what makes a building green, and that energy-use data from every rated building should be made public.

“The plaque should be installed with removable screws,†said Henry Gifford, an energy consultant in New York City. “Once the plaque is glued on, there’s no incentive to do better.â€

Perhaps it will be as success as it's US counterpart.

[grumpy-old-man-returns]

touche

(aka Climate camp protesters target bank )

I wonder if/how this get's covered on the news.

edited - the sticky bank story.

Edited September 1, 2009 by grumpy-old-man-returns

[porca misèria]

Fire the UK housebuilders. And don't let them work until they've at least reached the standards their more competent counterparts in much of the EU and US made the norm a couple of generations ago.