Fourth week are our house sale 

Around 20 viewings Four offers on the table 

I’m still waiting for someone to ask about Airtightness and levels of insulation 

All but two have been Doctors One being a conveyancing solicitor 

Not interested EPC etc 

The second is a form let joiner who has a chain of businesses 

I ran through the spec He simply wasn’t interested 

Is there anyone out there Other than us lot that cares about these things

 

I don't think so. I always think the efficiencies I'm building into our renovation will result in an increase in value, but in reality people just want usable space that looks nice. 

The cost for heating and DHW for a 5 bed house are fairly small compared to other costs, like mortgage, school fees, holidays, pensions, food, travel / car.

 

Maybe energy costs on a crap house is £4k a year and a good one is £1.5k.  On a £750k purchase it is not such a big deal.

22 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Maybe energy costs on a crap house is £4k a year and a good one is £1.5k.  On a £750k purchase it is not such a big deal.

 

The savings would cover an additional circa. £35K on the mortgage, and that's without lenders starting to offer preferential rates or cash-back for EPC A & B properties.

 

It's taking time, but Banks are slowly coming round to better lending options for higher performing homes.

Not in the least surprised. Most people who can afford such an up market house won't be in the least interested in running costs.

6 hours ago, nod said:

Is there anyone out there Other than us lot that cares about these things

We sold our house as soon as it went on the market. We had people bidding against each other for it and the final price was well above the asking price. They were interested in it because it was built to PH standards with an EPC of A95 without any PVs.

Not our experience 

13 hours ago, nod said:

Not our experience 

No it was my experience. Could be many things that affect house sales in different parts of the country.

5 hours ago, Gone West said:

No it was my experience. Could be many things that affect house sales in different parts of the country.

It’s not really effecting the sale 

We have four offers on the table Two over asking price 

My original point was no one has asked or cared enough to ask about EPC etc 

Your average per wouldn’t have a clue what A95 meant 

2 hours ago, nod said:

Your average per wouldn’t have a clue what A95 meant 

Maybe it depends on how the property is marketed. We marketed ours, as built to PH standards, and included details of the heating requirements. The two buyers who were left at the end, outbidding each other, had both gone to the bother to find out about PH standards and were looking for properties with an "A" EPC. I guess it's the luck of the draw.

People looking for PH houses will be interested in PH detailing. Everyone else isn’t interested. The EPC rating ought to matter to people but if they don’t care during an energy crisis they won’t care at any other time. Not one of the trades that have been at my house care about any of the performance criteria. They were shocked at the air tightness score having never been in a house under 1 ACH before. 

3 minutes ago, Kelvin said:

were shocked at the air tightness score

Had a few conversations about airtightness during our build, only the electrician appreciated it's importance. Everyone else, basically said it was shite and utter nonsense, that will lead to a mouldy smelly house. Lucky I ignored the neanderthals.

 

We have a pretty uneducated population about building science, so much so that the EPC may was well be written in Chinese, as very few will read or even if they do, actually understand it. Last house we sold had zero downloads of the EPC.

16 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Lucky I ignored the neanderthals.

A bit rude. Our joiner was intelligent and polite, had been to college, and had put up many a building for timber frame contractors, but he didn't understand air-tightness and had clearly never been made to seal laps in membranes before.

But I agree that contractors' s ignorance extends to criticising designs that are right and correct.  scary that they are doing this for other people. They don't know how little they know. Dunning Kruger in action.

2 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

A bit rude.

Not really - they are living in a past reality. I deleted the rest because that was rude.

3 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

they are living in a past reality

A good point. Neanderthals were intelligent apparently, but not great on airtight construction.