Household heat pumps.

[another_clean_sheet]

Originally Posted by mileshawk56

I dont understand the insulation thing, back when Tony Blair(remember him)? was in charge there where insulation organizations going round insulating for free all over the country,they did my house and Ive got about 12-18" of insulation on top of 4" already there on top of a boarded loft then 6 months later they came and pumped some stuff into the cavity walls. I cant believe I was the only person in Reading ? Chris S.

Itwas only free if you met certain conditions eg on benefits. The Government (or any Government) could not afford to insulate every house in the country free of charge.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by planenut

Do you suggest everything is put on hold due to the inevitable?

Not at all, I do however think that each and everyone of us needs to take responsibility for reducing energy consumption and resource wastage.

Originally Posted by another_clean_sheet

Itwas only free if you met certain conditions eg on benefits. The Government (or any Government) could not afford to insulate every house in the country free of charge.

Nor should they - because it is the tax payers who pay for such schemes. A good initiative would be to require an old boiler to be replaced with low-carbon technology at the time that a property is purchased. The cost should then be taken care of by the affordability factor and adjustment of property values.

[mileshawk56]

Mike I read your comment about "government --cost" and thought yes that make sense- but Ive thought more and considered it again. Im open to correction but I think this policy as stated for those on pension ie OAP over 65 whatever and those on benefits ie low income and whatever. OK now there are more than a few million of those categories at a guess 15-20 million. Now that being the case?? then a lot of home owners would have insulated,improved their insulation etc and builders where going that route before all the Nutters got on to it. So where is their evidence?? Its more and more rubbish miss information. Chris.S

[another_clean_sheet]

Originally Posted by mileshawk56

Mike I read your comment about "government --cost" and thought yes that make sense- but Ive thought more and considered it again. Im open to correction but I think this policy as stated for those on pension ie OAP over 65 whatever and those on benefits ie low income and whatever. OK now there are more than a few million of those categories at a guess 15-20 million. Now that being the case?? then a lot of home owners would have insulated,improved their insulation etc and builders where going that route before all the Nutters got on to it. So where is their evidence?? Its more and more rubbish miss information. Chris.S

You might disagree with me but there is no need to be rude and confrontational - " Its more and more rubbish miss information. Chris.S"
In fact being a pensioner by itself did not qualify you - you had to meet additional conditions which is why I insulated the loft at my cost.
However as I live in a 300 year old cottage which is timber framed and lathe and plaster walls which means if you inject insulation into the cavity you have a problem with dampness in the cavity. Warm damp air from inside condenses due to meeting cold air in the cavity and will eventually rot the timber. The solution is to rip out the internal walls, insert mineral wool in the cavity and then put up aluminium backed plaster board. That is a huge expence and would not be allowed if the cottage was listed.

[mileshawk56]

Mike I was aware of the condensation and other issues with cavity wall and loft insulation, and I havent seen it mentioned by "insulate britain" .My point obviously poorly made was that there were a lot of insulated houses ie including mine and yours, and on this subject the insulation demo lot have not produced any figures to justify their stance, these people should put up or shut up. Ive read my post and cant see I was disagreeing with you, the opposite in fact and the bit you highlighted wasnt addressed to you it was a comment on insulate britain NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- the traffic up cos I know best mob. Chris S.

[another_clean_sheet]

Originally Posted by mileshawk56

My point obviously poorly made was that there were a lot of insulated houses ie including mine and yours,

I do not consider my house is insulated. The thickness of a lathe and plaster wall is less than an inch thick and so it is not much of a thermal barrier

[stocktake]

As a slight aside, I and my team were brought in ( Too Late ) to quality check most of the insulation works carried out under the Government insulation scheme. ( Originally named Warmfront)
initially the surveyors were un qualified or inexperienced and surveys were not subject to even a desktop audit.
The installers were paid by the meter claimed and totally unsupervised.
I had a team of 6 ( three of which were office based) to police the whole UK not only for insulation but Gas C/H installations that ran alongside the insulation on the scheme. We were brought in after the scheme had been running for a few years with no QC.

By the time the company I worked for collapsed (Carillion) Whilst we never managed to get down to the UK national figures in Scotland alone we had literally thousands upon thousands of claims from individuals and local housing depts where cavity insulation had been installed in unsuitable dwellings. This has left many homes suffering from damp and mould.

It wasn't just Cavity insulation either, we also carried out External insulation, Installers on Minimum wage with no idea whatsoever of what regulations they were breaking when installing external insulation in relation to pipe sleeping, gas flue termination and ventilation.

The last best guestimate we could get to on the value of these potential claims (Scotland alone) was in excess of £34 million!!

The Cavity insulation works were supposedly backed with a CIGA guarantee which CIGA deemed as null and void if the company that carried out the work no longer existed.

The point made is that these people are still living in these houses with no recourse due to an ill thought out poorly managed scheme. It's only 5 yr ago we were throwing gas boilers in like there was no tomorrow. And "insulate Briton" or becoming "carbon neutral" is not as easy or simple as it may seem.