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> “Take out anything with a screen in your living room”, the critique goes, “there’s no way to tell if your house was built in the 2010s or the 1970s.” Where I

> “Take out anything with a screen in your living room”, the critique goes, “there’s no way to tell if your house was built in the 2010s or the 1970s.” Where I live in the UK, this is very much the case - except my house was built in 1890. Visually my house looks a lot like any house built today. Yet, the only structural improvements it's had since it was built are that gas central heating/DHW, double glazing and electricity were installed. The fireplace was also upgraded for clean air standards. No AC or ventilation, but modern UK houses still don't incorporate that. Now there are a bunch of invisible differences between my old house and a modern one, for example it doesn't have a cavity wall so the walls can get pretty chilly on cold days. Also most of the internal walls are brick rather than plasterboard which makes it hard getting good WiFi. It is nevertheless surprising how similar it is to a modern house despite being over 100 years old.

fy20 5y ago
My parents house in the UK was built nearly 40 years ago, and it's basically indistinguisable to new houses build today. uPVC instead of wooden windows, LED lighting and a slightly different colour pallet is about it. This isn't a good thing though: the UK is really lagging behind other parts of Europe in terms of energy efficient housing. The climate in the UK is mild enough that there is really no reason why you can't have an almost passively heated home. I'm in the process of building a new house in the Baltics (we actually have winter); it's twice the size of my parents' yet will use much less than half the energy to heat. I'm not don't anything special, that's just what the building code here requires.
- leoedin 5y ago
  This definitely was the case, although my understanding is that the standards for new buildings have increased significantly over the last decade or so. Houses don't have to be passivehaus standard, but there is a strong emphasis on air tightness and insulation now. Of course, this barely scratches the surface. Most houses are old, and will probably not be replaced in our lifetime. We're not doing nearly enough to retrofit energy efficiency.
  - cameronh90 5y ago
    > there is a strong emphasis on air tightness and insulation now. Which isn't exactly great without heat recovery ventilation. Either you open the windows to get fresh/non-humid air and lose your heat, or you end up with condensation spots from lack of ventilation. Particularly with modern houses lacking outdoor space in which to dry your clothes... Besides, most of the tightness and insulation can be fairly easily retrofitted to older houses. It does get harder pre-1930 where they use solid wall construction, but 1950 on isn't too hard to bring up to modern standards. Double glazing, cavity and loft insulation, new tightly fitted windows and you're mostly there.
568ml 5y ago
A quick tap on an internal wall will give you a good clue as to which half of that range the house was built in. Hell, I’ve been told houses are now being built with stud party walls.

fy20 5y ago

My parents house in the UK was built nearly 40 years ago, and it's basically indistinguisable to new houses build today. uPVC instead of wooden windows, LED lighting and a slightly different colour pallet is about it. This isn't a good thing though: the UK is really lagging behind other parts of Europe in terms of energy efficient housing. The climate in the UK is mild enough that there is really no reason why you can't have an almost passively heated home. I'm in the process of building a new house in the Baltics (we actually have winter); it's twice the size of my parents' yet will use much less than half the energy to heat. I'm not don't anything special, that's just what the building code here requires.

leoedin 5y ago
This definitely was the case, although my understanding is that the standards for new buildings have increased significantly over the last decade or so. Houses don't have to be passivehaus standard, but there is a strong emphasis on air tightness and insulation now. Of course, this barely scratches the surface. Most houses are old, and will probably not be replaced in our lifetime. We're not doing nearly enough to retrofit energy efficiency.
- cameronh90 5y ago
  > there is a strong emphasis on air tightness and insulation now. Which isn't exactly great without heat recovery ventilation. Either you open the windows to get fresh/non-humid air and lose your heat, or you end up with condensation spots from lack of ventilation. Particularly with modern houses lacking outdoor space in which to dry your clothes... Besides, most of the tightness and insulation can be fairly easily retrofitted to older houses. It does get harder pre-1930 where they use solid wall construction, but 1950 on isn't too hard to bring up to modern standards. Double glazing, cavity and loft insulation, new tightly fitted windows and you're mostly there.

568ml 5y ago

A quick tap on an internal wall will give you a good clue as to which half of that range the house was built in. Hell, I’ve been told houses are now being built with stud party walls.