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0 pointsz9znz3y ago0 comments

I live in a house in a village in the Netherlands. The house is from 20-150 years old, depending on which section you're in.

It is cold as f in this place all winter. It's also hot as f in these new 37 degree summers.

So the question is, is the problem the old homes, or our insistence to live in inefficient buildings in places with poor climates?

Of course in this country, there's more demand for housing than can be met, so living someplace modern (efficient/comfortable) is not necessarily an option based on price. So the next choice is relocating to a different country which has a more livable climate.

I love architectural history, but we would all be better off if modern engineering and design decisions were made on new structures to replace the grossly inefficient current ones.

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danielscrubs3y ago

Currently living in a rich area, 20 stories very modern high apartment complex. The first thing I thought when stepping into the apartment for the first time with its massive windows was “jikes the windows are leaking heat like crazy”. In my old home that was 60 years old it had way better insulation (with triple layered windows).

What I’m trying to say is that this is about incentives, not about how old things are. The modern building let their tenants cover the AC cost while the old one had water heating instead included.

z9znzOP3y ago

Not sure what part of the world you're in, but OP was describing Germany, and I'm in Netherlands. Both of these countries have pretty strict requirements for energy efficiency of new buildings. So at least here, it would be safe to assume that a < 10 year old home or apartment would be much more efficient (and comfortable) than a 30+ year old one.

Also, there's a new government initiative to provide incentives and special financing for property owners (who rent their property) to bring the efficiency of all properties up to a decent minimum level by 2030 if they wish to be allowed to continue renting them out. I imagine there may be some exclusions for certain very old properties, especially historical/monumental ones. But regardless, it should have a big positive impact.

ClumsyPilot3y ago

Indeed. for example UK has the most expensive and some of the worst buildings in EU, I have seen soviet buit homes that are better than some newbuilds over here. The word of the market is 'never buy a newbuild' because you never know what they fucked up.

The stories sound like comedy: entire block of flats was built the wrong way round, someone moved into theyr flat and found the balcony was missing - the balcony door just led to a 30 meter drop. They forgot to lay cable down for internet, so a new block only has 8 megabit ADSL. The building I am in, they made the holes for fire sprinkles in the wrong place - so there is a hole in the ceiling, but nothing behind it. The sprinkler is 20 cm away from it, inside the ceiling, and if something goes wrong it won't actually be able to pop out