Should smaller homes be better insulated than larger ones?

If so then why?

If all houses had a rating such as heat lost per hour per cubic metre of volume that would help buyers/owners compare houses. It would also show whether smaller houses needed better insulation, everything else being equal.

For equity maybe it should be heat loss per person. But you can't control the number of people who'll live in a house so you need some sort of proxy for that. Volume is possible but floor area would be better, I think.

I like those ideas, bring them on

Posted By: owlmanMany years ago when I lived in Germany it was common for estate agents when selling or renting houses to quote both Wohnfläche, (living space) and, Grundstück, (plot size). Comparisons were easily reduced to price per M2. I don't know if it was mandatory or indeed if it still exists but it just seemed easy to compare ads. before you even started trundling around, and looking.

Indeed it does and the rules for Wohnfläche form the basis of the PHI 'treated floor area' standard. And surprise, surprise PH already does what is being talked about, so why reinvent the wheel?

The reason that small houses need more insulation is the same reason that detached houses need more insulation than semis, which need more insulation than terraces, which need more insulation than blocks of flats. Which is the same reason mice eat a larger proportion of their body mass every day than elephants. The surface area:volume ratio is larger for smaller objects.

Posted By: owlmanPHI 'treated floor area' Passiv Haus, is that what you mean?

I'm on about making all house ads/exchanges,-- new, old, buy, rent, depict sizes in M2, not just Passiv Hauser. I assumed tony means all houses.

Exactly, but at the moment you cannot even choose to use PHI criteria in the UK instead of the SAP/EPC nonsense, let alone replace it. There's no point in inventing yet another one-off measurement system when there's already a perfectly good one that can be used, IMHO.

I think there should be a level of energy usage for a home that is acceptable however high per m^2 it comes out at. After all a 20 m^2 studio flat using 2x per m^2 is better than one person living in a 60^2 flat using 2x per m^2.
It is so match easier to get the PHI tick mark if a property is larger.

(And having more height can make allow studio flat to have a raised sleeping platform that does not count towards the m^2, as legal it is a bunk bed....)

I would go as far as to say the first X kWh of gas and electric per person should be tax free with a high tax on any usage about that level.

Posted By: djh

Posted By: owlmanPHI 'treated floor area' Passiv Haus, is that what you mean?

I'm on about making all house ads/exchanges,-- new, old, buy, rent, depict sizes in M2, not just Passiv Hauser. I assumed tony means all houses.

Exactly, but at the moment you cannot even choose to use PHI criteria in the UK instead of the SAP/EPC nonsense, let alone replace it. There's no point in inventing yet another one-off measurement system when there's already a perfectly good one that can be used, IMHO.

I don't see making house sellers/landlords show floor area as:- "yet another one off measurement". It's surely a basic requirement for a buyer to work out whether they are getting a bum deal or not, and as I said easy to make comparisons. No different really from lenders quoting interest rates. Any thing else (e.g. flowery phraseology), could be construed as being deliberately evasive by sellers.
Once that open principle is established/mandatory, then it could be used as the basis for any other energy performance criterion that (tony?) might wish to layer onto it.
That's all I was saying, and floor/living area has to be fundamental, along with others, to that end, it would be a beginning.

1 Last time I checked BTU was already the USA customary unit for heat.

2 These days floor plans do usually include areas.

3 Even if they do not, it is already included in the mandatory EPC document.

as a youngster, I lived on a monotonous diet of mass every day, for years...

(not good for the system)

gg

Posted By: gyrogearI lived on a monotonous diet of mass

Catholic?

Posted By: SteamyTeaa diet of grass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms

shapeshifter!

Re the science bits behind buying a house, you should always bear in mind that regular people don't give a sh..

It's easy to forget, especially for learned people. It's also reasonable to say that the people here, the faculties that enable and drive them to be here, mean they're probably among the top 10%, maybe even top 5% intelligences in the country..

Truly; it's easy to forget because you're in a world where everyone else you know is thus too, and you don't encounter average people with sufficient depth of engagement to really keep a handle on just how different their perspective is. Not trying to be elitist, but there are an awful lot more people out there who don't look at the numbers in the same way, and don't put that level of thought into a house, and don't care about these bottom lines as much as a host of other factors.. Factors which, really, are their bottom lines. £/sqm or and EPC grade B isn't going to wash on someone who's looking for a garden for the kids, a nice view and close to the less rough schools while being affordable

I've a friend who spent twenty grand on her wedding, and had to borrow 5 grand for a house deposit from the fiancées parents. That then got her a choice of 3 crappy houses on some government help to buy scheme. How much stronger a negotiating position would a 25 grand deposit have put her in? Didn't work out that way though, because it didn't align with what she wanted and what she was prepared to sacrifice..

It is so sad that nobody cares about anything anymore:(

+1 to the above... now just convince the Daily Maul writers/editor(s)....