Energy efficent my ass.
There's an ad on TV at the moment, one of those twee hand wringing jobbies from the government, where ink drips from walls and lights and radiators into a family home. This-naturally- is the government's way of imploring us to spend less on heating and save energy. To further fuck with the good people of Ireland, our gas bills now have a 33% hike since the beginning of October.
Yesterday I went to visit a good friend of mine I have not seen for a while (she lives down the country). She has been asking me to come for ages and see her new house, so after kickboxing I rented a car and took off.
Her home is beautiful, three bedrooms and a lovely garden-an actual garden with a patio and everything. She had painted it in nice warm mellow yellows and her daughter's room is a pink fantasy that I would have given my mother's heart for at four. Gorgeous. Her sitting room is lovely, modern and stylish, with a large gaping hole where her natural flame gas fire used to be.
'Where is your fire gone, toots?'
'Oh,' she groaned, 'He (her partner) took it out. We're putting a real fire back in. It cost too much to heat and even though we've a full tank upstairs there's never enough hot water.'
We peered at the hole.
'Let's go back inot the kitchen.' She suggested.
We had tea, gossiped, ate turkey and chutney sambos, delish, gossiped, had biscuits, gossiped, laughed about some really scary old photos she had found of us in her mother's house (i'd forgotten about the perm from Hades) and generally had a swell time.
Then I toodled upstairs to use her bathroom. I was washing my hands when I heard the toilet flush for a second time. Startled I turned around, but there was nothing there. Perplexed I tippy-toed over to the loo. Then I heard a man clear his throat and start singing.
Haunted! Aiiieeeee.
Except it wasn't. When I told my friend she rolled her eyes and said, 'I know, it's next door, we can even hear what they're watching on telly. And they can here it when I put my washing machine on.'
'But.' I said helpfully, 'that's terrible.'
'What can you do?' She shrugged.
We had more jaffa cakes.
What can she do indeed? It's a bloomin' scam, cheaply built government approved homes that cost an absolute fortune to buy. How very bloody typical of the 'boom'.
This week on Primetime a whole section of the show was dedicated to the construction industry. Over a five-year period from 1998 to 2003, when new energy performance regulations were introduced, 250,000 houses "were built to a standard of energy efficiency that was 35pc below what it should have been," according to Gerry McCaughey of Centuary homes.
These homes are quick to build, difficult to heat and-like my friend's home- you can hear if next door farts.
Naturally the government are going wee wee wee all the way home on this one as the Construction Industry is a major organ donor in the 'Ireland is rich aren't we great,' aspect of our leaders.
McCaughey said new homeowners of hollow point bricks were paying an additional €15,000 in heating bills over the lifetime of the mortgage.
"This Government and the Department of the Environment are protecting vested interests in the construction industry by delaying the introduction of energy efficient building regulations which would affect the way houses are constructed in Ireland," Mr McCaughey told the Oireachtas committee on the Environment.
So the truth is people, like my friend, who own new homes and are on tight budgets are the ones who are getting stung.
Mr McCaughey said that around 20,000 houses a year were being built using hollow blocks, but that it would be "impossible to find a builder prepared to live in one."
Naturally. He doesn't want people listening in while he counts his money.
Deputy Ciaran Cuffe of the Green Party called for the Competition Authority to look at the issue and called for department officials to come before the committee.
Environment Minister Dick Roche said insulation standards were amongst the highest in the EU.
"This belies the allegations that Ireland is somehow failing in our efforts to improve energy efficiency in our housing stock," he said.
Minister Roche said he would continue to meet with the timber frame sector with regard to the development of building standards.
"I am not prepared to favour any particular sector in my dealings with the construction industry and I think my record in this regard speaks for itself," he said.
It does indeed speak for itself, and if he said it next door to my friend's house I could hear every word while sitting in her kitchen.
Yesterday I went to visit a good friend of mine I have not seen for a while (she lives down the country). She has been asking me to come for ages and see her new house, so after kickboxing I rented a car and took off.
Her home is beautiful, three bedrooms and a lovely garden-an actual garden with a patio and everything. She had painted it in nice warm mellow yellows and her daughter's room is a pink fantasy that I would have given my mother's heart for at four. Gorgeous. Her sitting room is lovely, modern and stylish, with a large gaping hole where her natural flame gas fire used to be.
'Where is your fire gone, toots?'
'Oh,' she groaned, 'He (her partner) took it out. We're putting a real fire back in. It cost too much to heat and even though we've a full tank upstairs there's never enough hot water.'
We peered at the hole.
'Let's go back inot the kitchen.' She suggested.
We had tea, gossiped, ate turkey and chutney sambos, delish, gossiped, had biscuits, gossiped, laughed about some really scary old photos she had found of us in her mother's house (i'd forgotten about the perm from Hades) and generally had a swell time.
Then I toodled upstairs to use her bathroom. I was washing my hands when I heard the toilet flush for a second time. Startled I turned around, but there was nothing there. Perplexed I tippy-toed over to the loo. Then I heard a man clear his throat and start singing.
Haunted! Aiiieeeee.
Except it wasn't. When I told my friend she rolled her eyes and said, 'I know, it's next door, we can even hear what they're watching on telly. And they can here it when I put my washing machine on.'
'But.' I said helpfully, 'that's terrible.'
'What can you do?' She shrugged.
We had more jaffa cakes.
What can she do indeed? It's a bloomin' scam, cheaply built government approved homes that cost an absolute fortune to buy. How very bloody typical of the 'boom'.
This week on Primetime a whole section of the show was dedicated to the construction industry. Over a five-year period from 1998 to 2003, when new energy performance regulations were introduced, 250,000 houses "were built to a standard of energy efficiency that was 35pc below what it should have been," according to Gerry McCaughey of Centuary homes.
These homes are quick to build, difficult to heat and-like my friend's home- you can hear if next door farts.
Naturally the government are going wee wee wee all the way home on this one as the Construction Industry is a major organ donor in the 'Ireland is rich aren't we great,' aspect of our leaders.
McCaughey said new homeowners of hollow point bricks were paying an additional €15,000 in heating bills over the lifetime of the mortgage.
"This Government and the Department of the Environment are protecting vested interests in the construction industry by delaying the introduction of energy efficient building regulations which would affect the way houses are constructed in Ireland," Mr McCaughey told the Oireachtas committee on the Environment.
So the truth is people, like my friend, who own new homes and are on tight budgets are the ones who are getting stung.
Mr McCaughey said that around 20,000 houses a year were being built using hollow blocks, but that it would be "impossible to find a builder prepared to live in one."
Naturally. He doesn't want people listening in while he counts his money.
Deputy Ciaran Cuffe of the Green Party called for the Competition Authority to look at the issue and called for department officials to come before the committee.
Environment Minister Dick Roche said insulation standards were amongst the highest in the EU.
"This belies the allegations that Ireland is somehow failing in our efforts to improve energy efficiency in our housing stock," he said.
Minister Roche said he would continue to meet with the timber frame sector with regard to the development of building standards.
"I am not prepared to favour any particular sector in my dealings with the construction industry and I think my record in this regard speaks for itself," he said.
It does indeed speak for itself, and if he said it next door to my friend's house I could hear every word while sitting in her kitchen.
posted by fatmammycat at 9:26 AM
19 Comments:
Well posted... now I know why Bertie's bro is in charge of not building social housing... the spec would be too high.
Plus it's handy that the SEI grants for heating systems with greater energy efficiency are being soaked up by the approved dealers/installers. This country is riding for a fall...
It is worrying Conan. I"m not banging the drums of doom, but the property market seems to be slowing slightly and the manufactoring end of things looks- to my inexperienced eye- a little shaky. Where is the balance?
Cadburys in Coolock shedded 450 jobs yesterday, some of the plants are outsourcing to India and Pakistan and interest rates are oh so slowly creeping up. I feel that too much of this countries supposed wealth is tied up in credit and property. Property that is impossible to heat I might add.
Excellent writing as always FMC. I hadn't been aware of this issue, being a feckless renter, but it rings true. The tribunals showed that Ireland was run by a cabal of crooks for decades and I have no doubt that the billions sloshing around the country today have had a corrupting influence which will make that era look like the Athens of Pericles.
For what it's worth I met Dick Roche when he was minister for Europe and he struck me as a typical Fianna Fail hack, full of bluster and short on intellect, so his weasel words don't surprise me at all.
Not sure if your friend would be interested, but a couple of years ago my mother got these lads out to the house - they pumped the hollow walls full of a liquid insulator, and the difference was unreal - house was roasting all the time. I don't think they were too expensive either.
It also cut down on the noise coming from the neighbours.
I meant to say in the above - I can find out the details of that company if you like.
I don't think she would be interested Kav, she has her eye on a site near where her present home is, and if they can get PP on it she'll be out of there faster than you or I can say Fianna Fail are crooks. But thank you all the same.
Tsk, and here I thought they just tried those tricks here.
Of course, with us, it's cooling, not heating. You wouldn't believe the amount of twats that buy 4,000 square foot homes in the desert, and then can't believe it when their monthly summer electric bill costs them $1,800. What were they thinking? Of course the house was cheap, it's in the middle of a desert, just like most of Southern California! And then, are they interested in solar power? Why no, they are not, as that might ruin "the lines" of their house, and be against their Home Owners Association rules, to boot.
And don't get me started on "low flush" toilets that take four flushes to get one square of toilet paper to go down. Really efficient work, at least by the lobbyists of the plumbing industry.
I never understood why folk that live in sunny climes DIDN'T use solar power. Surely to gawd it makes a whole lot of sense to slap up a few panels on the roof and slice a chunk of cash off all the bills? No?
Thigimie, Edward Norton, he and another group of socially conscientious actors are involved some scheme at the moment, for every celeb who buy solar power the company he's part of supplies some poorer family with the panels, his greanddaddy was a rather famous architect and philanthropist I think, and Ed, as well as being a terrific actor is totally involved in efficent building and community work. Interesting piece on it in the Times last year.
the problem with solar power is that it's outrageously expensive at the outset, buying the panels and such.... but once you're off the grid, kiss that electric company good-bye!
of interesting note, a good friend of mine is currently working at the U, where they're developing bacteria that can produce biofuel. talk about a renewable resource!
That is efficent! How will they harvest it I wonder?
I have researched solar panels. It takes around ten years to make back the money you spend, after that its all clear profit AND you can contribute to the grid and get paid for it if you are generating extra.
BTW as Kav said the blow in stuff is great. We have a house that was build in 1913 and we did this, our heating bills were over halved. When we replaced all our appliances with modern efficient ones our electricity bill went down by 60% !!!!
60 % is a massive drop. Well done.
The house the paramour has bought for us is pre-40, so the walls are solid as solid can be, not like the newbuilds. Plus when we replace all the single pane windows and actually put a roof and insulation in it should be toasty. But it is good to know such things exist. I like the ideaof the solar panels though as I loathe paying so much for heating and electricity. Would they be just as efficent in a cloudy country as Ireland?
These energy efficient long-life bulbs are pretty good. We trimmed 30 odd % off our electricity bill when we started putting these in.
Sparra's right. I think I have to plunge a toilet about 3 or 4 times a week with these pitiful little California flushes. I'm mindful of the water usage but it's a false economy when you end up having to flush more than once. The girls are in and out of the loo so often that we do the "if it's yellow it's mellow..." thing with them. Otherwise we'd flush this county dry.
Sam is right about the bulbs, I forgot to say that we also added the energy efficient light bulbs, they were part of our 60% reduction.
I have seen loos thta have two flusher button thingies, one low flow one for pee, and one higher flow one for poop.
We had those in Spain, a smalled press for wee and a bigger press for BMs. I think they are introducing them here on newer loos-cause you know how drought riddled Ireland can be, right?
"I like the idea of the solar panels though as I loathe paying so much for heating and electricity. Would they be just as efficent in a cloudy country as Ireland"
I'm told the panels are best as a replacement water heating system... however, the benefit is net of additional (electric) pumping costs, and installation cost will have to include new (higher capacity) tank etc. The system is set up so that the conventional system only kicks in when the panels aren't collecting enough. That said, they don't depend on full sunlight and once on a south-facing pitched roof they will work even when it's not too heavily overcast.
Thank you Conan.
I know a fella from Dublin who smuggles the High vol.flush lavs down from Canada.
Customs have been trying to lift him for ages but have *pause* nothing to go on.
The first part is true.
We have installed two of those duo flush lavs. They look beautiful but even the full flush is not great and often needs two goes. Solar panels in Ireland are ok if you like lukewarm showers.
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