SteamyTea

(expletive deleted)ing hard work some days ain't it.

Not always as it is to do with marginal costs. If Ford made 2 cars, and 2 cars only, they would cost hundreds of millions each, if they make a million, that development cost comes down to about 1000 per vehicle, but if they have to build a new factory to build the 1000001 car in, the unit cost of that car is probably back up into the 100s of millions. There is a point where the right number of products, and at the right price, is reached. This optimum pricing point can vary during a products lifecycle as there is a 'learning curve' associated with it. Energy prices are now currently having the learning curve disrupted, there are no real winners in the medium term, regardless of one or two quarter profit figures. I think as @ProDave said, energy is really still quite cheap. 1 kWh is the ability to move 1 tonne, 1 meter, every second, for an hour. Not many of us would do that for 30p. MInimum wage is almost a tenner an hour now.

If we build highly insulated house foundations and then plonked modular designs on them, rebuilding might be a lot easier. Sensible orientation would have to be considered to take advantage of solar gain/generation. The Laws of Thermodynamics and Energy Conservation are not going to change, so as we know what to do already, it seems strange that we are not doing it. If every new building had to have an overall floor U-Value of 0.1 W/m².K, manufacturers would quickly come up with systems that are economical to make and install.

No. Form becomes the main thing, function is totally forgotten about. There is also a huge amount of post purchase rationalisation. Interestingly, I noticed that my Mother, who owned a posh restaurant 40 years ago, does all her prep and serving in a 4 foot ² area. I work in the same manner. My kitchen is better as I have sink one side and hob the other side. Hers is wedged between the sink and fridge.

He said it in 2006!

An Irish mate of mine, who lives in Scotland says, "if I had to live in England, I would get a bag of drugs and hide up a tree untill it gets better". I have kind of been doing that for 30 years or more.

Depends where it is. Odd how we have calls from the press, and the general public, to nationalise the energy companies. Why don't we nationalise all housing?

Or not. When demand drops for a product or service, the fixed overheads become the dominating price factor, this can cause prices to rise, and perversely, people often pay that higher price. Why people have been paying above list price for an almost new second hand car, and £3.20 for an artisan coffee.

What are those estimates for? Do they take into account 'oil wars', or for that matter the savings on imports if energy? How about health benefits?

Didn't we hear the same arguements about fitting seatbelts, then catalytic converters, then ABS and airbags, and now stability control to cars. All we have ended up with is better, cheaper to run, safer cars. Hardly stopped people buying them. The cost of energy will though.

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/ If it is not there, JFGI

And that is being generous since it assumes the boiler is perfectly sized to the load and can consistently run at the laboratory tested efficiencies.

Built a frame out of cheap fencing timber 15 years ago. Replaced it this year (and extended it). Total cost under 200 quid for about 7m². Made sure the timber is raised up off the ground this time. So should get 20 years out of it. @pocster did his apprenticeship with Fred West.

Shane, you won't see half the projects on here finished.

Train or educate? Sex education for school kids is considered a good thing. Sex training, well that is more @pocster's bag

Surely that depends on how, what, and why you calculate both the costs and prices of existentials. If you value nature too low, you value everything too low.

Been a good day. My Mother is vastly improved, saw her cousin (similar age), had a reasonable journey back (only 1 accident blocking roads today), now parked up looking at the sea, in sunshine.

Cynic

Have you read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Establishment:_And_How_They_Get_Away_with_It I have. Kind of agreed with a lot of it, but was, by its very nature, overly political.

I agree. If a builder cannot do as suggested, or work out what is needed, they should be made to rethink their career.

I don't think the BRE is overly political.

Maybe not. But the committee that created this will have looked at the science and statistics behind it. There are many rules and regulations that seem a bit odd at first, but make sense after a while. A classic case is not having to display a vehicle road fund certificate in the window. Many people thought it could not work, but they did not realise that we have cameras doing the job, not Bobby on the street. We should have complained about the over surveillance of ordinary people doing ordinary things, but the political interference played it's part by reinforcing irrational fears of 'safety'.

I think the rational is to improve the overall dwelling. Personally I don't have a problem with this sort of interference. Setting national standards is the job of government, if it is a good idea, then parliament does not oppose it and it becomes law.

Better get mine as well. I think that there is now a serious problem with the state supporting private companies via the back door. One of our regular customers claims about every benefit going, I don't have a problem with this, our benefits are not that generous. They spend about a third (of the discretionary spend) of it with us. We benefit from their benefits.

So money does grow on trees.