Colin Burke on when thick curtains won’t suffice, Phil Ebbrell on the problems of external insulation and David Symington on the joys of an air-source heat pump
While welcoming the Royal Institute of British Architects’ call for the insulation of 3.3m interwar houses (Report, 11 February), I am reflecting on the refusal of local planning officers to agree to effective measures to reduce the carbon footprint of my “interwar” property, although in this case the wars involved were the Seven Years and Napoleonic wars. There are over 370,000 listed buildings in the UK, listed not by worth but by age. Despite my repeated efforts to replace old and inefficient sash windows with almost identical but double-glazed ones, planners refuse to contemplate such works, recommending instead that thick curtains should suffice.
Having already fitted such drapes, I am reluctant to keep them drawn for 24 hours a day, so would call upon Riba to include listed homes to its worthy campaign.
Colin Burke
Cartmel, Cumbria
(SOURCE) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/17/double-trouble-with-insulation-in-older-homes