I just watched some video about Yakutsk Siberia which is meant to be the coldest city in the world. Thought “Those poor bastards, wonder what they need to wear indoors when it is -40 outside.”
Turns out a pissing tank top and PJ bottoms. We really need to start demanding better things in this country don’t we?
I’m also reading a book about coal mining. All the unpaid labour, minimising wages and dodgy things the bosses did then still happens now. Now I’m not a tankie so don’t get the wrong idea here. But why are we all okay living like this I don’t get it? Why is the UK population so forgiving at living it shit conditions.
Also I’m going to jump in before anyone says no insulation keeps you cold in the summer. Insulation works both ways, it can keep heat our or it can keep heat in. It’s better in the summer and in the winter.
Siberia video in question:
https://youtu.be/K0z7Avc9ZtY?si=_KTob2YYMn2HLwkv
Also I hope I havent broken any rules. I can’t see any. This seems mostly news posts but I guess text posts are allowed? Sorry if not.
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(text post is fine :) )
I would say that we haven’t. However, we have a lot of old housing that needs improving.
As someone who’s been spending too much time on building work at the moment, the current regulations and requirements for insulation are not that light. (Approved Document L, if you’re interested)The specifications are written in W/(M2-K), or watts of heat lost per meter squared, per degree delta from one side to the other.
New dwellings have to hit:
- External walls: 0.13wmk
- Roofs: 0.11 wmk (that’s about 330mm of glass fibre insulation, or 160mm of PIR board)
- External floors: 0.13
Or to put this in perspective: A 30 M2 roof on a new house, on a 0 degree day, with an internal temperature of 20 degrees should only be losing 66W of heat per hour.
An older building retrofitted with 100mm of insulation (effective wmk of 0.4) would lose 240W
An uninsulated roof (2.5wmk) would lose 1500W.
The ECO plans are trying to fix this in older properties, and they’re honestly pretty well thought out (they target the lowest hanging fruit, to get the best effect for the money spent). But things take time, and ensuring the work is done to a good standard costs a lot of money.
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That’s probably not because of good insulation, but just because of central heating system in most of the apartment buildings
Spent a winter in a semi in Manchester. Coldest winter of my life due to no insulation and the constant draft.
People build housing to the specs their environment requires. The UK has extremely stable moderate temperatures so doesn’t put the extra cost into insulation or central cooling.
Not really true. UK definitely has a history of under-insulation compared to other European countries with similar climates (like Denmark for example).
Last time I was there visiting a relative I was shocked to find that the “mailbox” was just a hole cut on the door. Like, it was raining outside and they just had a big hole on the front door, which itself was just a wooden plank. May as well have blasted the heating straight out the window.
Yeah having lived throughout the US (including about as far north as you can get in the 48) I was shocked to move to Scotland and be freezing cold all the time. I’ve never had to wear so many layers in my own home. Plus utilities are literally an order of magnitude more expensive. As soon as the heat turns off the room immediately cools down. Its insane
We really need to start demanding better things in this country don’t we?
I am pretty confident that if someone in the UK wants to build a house with Yakutsk-level amounts of insulation, that’s an option. But the UK doesn’t get Yakutsk-level temperature extremes – what it makes sense to do differs.
Out here in California, I am sure that the earthquake resistance of our houses is probably way higher than that of most houses in the UK. But…we also get large earthquakes on a not-wildly-infrequent basis, so it kind of has a need to be that way. You could go build a British house that could stand up to that, but what’s the point? The UK doesn’t get huge earthquakes, and it costs more to do that.
Same thing for wildfires. We have a bunch of restrictions on things like growing foliage near buildings. The UK doesn’t really have a serious problem with fires, so the need to mitigate fire risk is much-less-serious.
On the other side of things, I’d bet that a lot of places in the UK are far more-capable at dealing with snow than where I am. Lot of flat roofs that would deal poorly with snow buildup here.
As an outsider, I offer the following theory: it’s cultural.
Brits are conditioned by the media and each other to suffer and wear that suffering like a badge of honour. This is the country that pioneered the battle tactic of having soldiers just line up in an orderly fashion to get shot and have their countrymen just step over them to take their place afterall.
I’m still in awe of a conversation I found on Reddit when I first came here. A Polish guy was asking why the homes were so poorly insulated: “I’m Polish”, he said, “I’m familiar with cold weather. This is deliberate suffering”. He was berated at length for being “weak”, that he should “just put on a jumper and shut up”. In the same thread, someone actually referred to carpeting as insulation.
Worse still, you seem to have no idea who to properly blame for that suffering. You keep electing kleptocrats and aspiring fascists and turn your nose up at anyone who points out that your suffering is the direct result of said kleptocrats. You passed on one guy 'cause you fell for lies about him being “extreme”, “a communist”, and “antisemitic”, and you passed on the one before that because he ate a sandwich funny.
What you do excel at is scapegoating. It’s the immigrants. It’s the poor. It’s anyone but ourselves and the kleptocrats we elected.
This is why you can’t have nice things. Recognise that you’re part of the problem, demand better leaders, and stop being so fucking stupid at the polling booth, and maybe then you’ll get better results.
