To be eco friendly in construction or renovation costs more money than it ought to. We have the government talking about and introducing different types of 'green tax' to sway us away from an enviromentally unfriendly way of living. Unfortunately many consumers can't see the benefit of these new products as a majority of them are just too expensive, and not affordable to many.
If all these expensive items as well as clever design details were implemented at build stage the overall cost would be cheaper than retro fitting to an existing dwelling. Unfortunately the overall cost would still be higher than a standard home.
Who out there would buy one of these homes and how much more would you be prepared to pay over the average home???
mark brinkley
posted on 03-02-07
They have tied to calculate this effect at Bedzed where there are about 30 open market apartments of which two or three change hands each year. Bedzed is surrounded by conventional developments so in theory there is a choice for people wanting to live in Beddington. The Bedzed apartments sell for a little more than the neighbours on a £/ft 2 basis but the truth is that they are selling to enthusiasts who want to live in Bedzed so it's not really a fair open market comparison. There's rather more to the Bedzed experience than just "eco homes excellent." Only if there was hundreds if not thousands of Bedzeds would you be able to make a fair comparison.
You've only got to look at the typical savings from a solar panel (maybe £150 a year if you are lucky) and compare that with the size of a typical £150,000 mortgage (£750 a month and rising) and you can see how little effect renewable plant will have on the financial considerations. And many people back in the 80s took a very negative view of solar panels - "just another damn thing to go wrong - rip 'em out."
Albert
posted on 03-02-07
I think there are several aspects to "how much extra?"
The factors that spring to my mind are:
Economic: would I get a reasonable return on investment for the extra cost -- e.g. if solar hot water would pay for itself in less than 5 years it would fall into this category.
Comfort & convenience: hard to quantify, but people will pay more for a cosy house without draughts, etc. if they can see/feel the difference when they view.
"Conscience money": probably most people who use this forum would be prepared to invest a bit in features that are uneconomic but help to save the planet. 1% extra? 5%? 10%?
Then there are features that some would buy into and some wouldn't. I'd only install significant PV capacity if I had to live off-grid, but I'd seriously look at solar DHW, even if the economics were dubious.
Peter A
posted on 03-02-07
As a developer in the south east we have to acheive 10% on site renewable energy, we don't pass the cost of this onto our customers just lose it in the build cost, we usually install solar hot water as it's the easy option. Haven't noticed our customers choosing us over our competitors because of the solar panels. The homes are timber frame so definitely draught free and 20% better insulation than regs. Put that together and the saving from the solar panels is less than £50 per year.
At the moment don't think the buying public would pay more, they like the idea of doing their bit though.
The governments wish to be building Carbon Zero Homes by 2016 is going to be a challenge, at todays prices the cost would be between £30,000 to £40,000!
Tony
posted on 03-02-07
Couldn't you absorb that into the build costs? Or more easily steal if from the development profit?
Peter A
posted on 03-02-07
Tony, now why didn't I see that one coming???? £40K on a £250K home!!!! The house building industry would go into melt down and nothing would get built.
Seriously though it is a big problem not least the fact that to be Zero Carbon the home needs to be 145% better than the Building Regs and the biggest hurdle - Onsite electricity generation, the current options are, wind, pv's or chp, all of which leave a little to be desired.
When it comes to insulation and air leakage we are probably the experts, heating/hot water, open to persuasion the current favourites, solar panels, but they're a bit boring, we need to push the boundaries a bit, GSHP, ASHP, Fuel Cells in main stream new housing.
Sorry to repeat myself but the big issue will always be electricity generation.
The government will have to step up and inspire the inventors, "green" should be a mandatory subject at school.
Any thoughts out there?
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