RESIDENTIAL - please comment to add your ideas

Please comment with your climate change ideas/feedback for the Residential team, here are some suggestions for actions you might want to consider; 

  • Working towards a smooth transition from fossil fuel energy sources.
  • Promoting energy efficiency in existing domestic and commercial properties and encouraging net zero developments.
  • Exploring alternative renewable energy and heating sources to achieve zero emissions.

Why the contribution is important

Your opinion counts

by SaraIOMGov on September 19, 2019 at 11:32AM

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Comments

  • Posted by ianpilbeam September 20, 2019 at 08:48

    Rather than build new houses why are we not encouraging people to improve existing houses. Put fines in place for those who have semi derelict buildings.

  • Posted by Scryer September 20, 2019 at 12:11

    Often it is expensive to make improvements to your home and many people cannot afford it. Perhaps offer grants to people to make economical improvements for solar or wind power, better insulation including windows/doors and roofing etc. Encourage homes to move away from the use of gas and oil and seek cleaner ways of heating the home.

  • Posted by mkelly September 20, 2019 at 23:26

    As mentioned at the DEFA meeting on Sep 19th, there are a lot of houses over here that are unsuitable for installing air- or ground-source heat pumps. Old houses need to be a bit draughty so they can "breathe" and not get damp.

    If the walls are studded off with plasterboard, or covered with insulation, then the original rubble stone wall will get damp. The damp cannot escape and home owners will be left with walls where the mortar is just a sludgy kind of putty (as had happened to our old terraced house when we bought it). Old houses need to be rendered with lime plaster -- it will allow the house to "breathe" and make it feel less damp inside, which will mean less need for central heating in the first place.

    After that, the best way of heating draughty old houses would be biomass boilers and/or wood-burning stoves (to the new standard so that particulate emissions are kept to a minimum). For streets of old houses, then community heating is the way forward. Either a biomass boiler to serve a whole street, or a larger-scale boiler to serve a whole village (as they've been doing in Europe for years). The money for this needs to be allocated as a grant to the street or to the village.

    If it's kept as a street-by-street heating plan then there's a nice side-effect of building community connections between residents.

  • Posted by janetlees September 21, 2019 at 13:59

    We need affordable eco-housing on the island. At the moment passive houses are beyond the reach of anyone but the super-rich because of the price of land. Make land available for collections of passive-houses which ordinary people can afford. Have community energy generation in these communities, as well as in existing communities.

  • Posted by janetlees September 21, 2019 at 14:00

    There are so many houses/buildings that are just falling into dereliction, because there are no financial penalties for allowing this to happen. Empty properties should be subject to taxes, as an incentive to make them usable. We shouldn't be building new homes (unless they are eco-houses) when so many usable properties exist.

  • Posted by Butch September 22, 2019 at 09:51

    Instead of lagging behind the UK Building Regs. The IOM should look at the Swedish building standards on insulation and integrate them to the current regulations
    This will cause outrage from the developers as it will add extra cost to the building
    So our government will have to decide whether it takes climate change seriously enough to overrule the building companies

    If our government decides in favour of better insulation in new homes, the next issue is what to do about the draughty and damp old housing stock designed for coal fires, in which it's not practical to install such efficient insulation
    The soloution to this would be that for every new Greenfield building plot created there is a provision to buy back and demolish an old house
    Certain shabby areas could be favoured for this scheme and the cleared site returned to green parkland
    There will be the ususal wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who suffer nostalgia as an affliction, but we are supposed to be looking to the future, not some fond imagined past

  • Posted by wjh September 23, 2019 at 23:20

    Our vernacular buildings (traditional houses, farms, warehouse buildings etc) reflect and constribute to the character and history of our Island. They should be retained but grants made available for retrofitting to achieve energy efficiency and zero carbon emissions. All new houses and residential developments should be built to the highest ecological standards as of NOW!

  • Posted by MarkHaith September 25, 2019 at 13:01

    I would like to see IOM Government taking leadership in influencing a shift in choice towards eco insulation materials and away from fossil fuel boilers. To do so will take legislation and grants; an Island should become a green sanctuary rather than a dirty hot spot. I believe it is the government's power to make significant changes if they choose to.

    Something that will make a difference in the short term is more spot checks on vehicles failing to meet reasonable omissions standards. As an island this is a particular issue because diesel engines are designed to self-clean through motorway runs; without this type of driving IOM diesels tend to clog up when undertaking repeated short journeys. We should also undertake yearly MOT tests to remove filthy diesels from our roads.

    Grants in UK make up the difference between buying a new fossil fuel boiler and air heat pump (around £11,000 difference). Investment in a scheme of this sort seems sensible.

    I am in the process of completely gutting and retro fitting insulation to meet new build U values in an Edwardian property. We had absolutely no insulation at time of purchase and will receive no assistance from government with these purchases or installation. I am aware that very few people will able or willing to undertake these changes without direct assistance. The end to grants for new energy efficient roofing has had a direct impact on energy efficiency of older properties and was in my view shortsighted.

    In purchasing eco insulating materials for retrofit (woolwood board, sheeps wool insulation, cork board etc) I have had to organise this through UK suppliers as IOM builders merchants are unwilling to stock these products. Similarly, there are no producers of such products on IOM - incentives to develop production of sheep's wool insulation on IOM through encouraging its usage in new/retrofit properties are needed. Until incentives are introduced to encourage the use of modern renewable insulation, industry standard will remain focused on carbon intensive products such as kingspan and plaster board. Use of these man made insulation products is suspect because they are damaging to the environment to produce, so what we save in emissions we lose elsewhere in their production.

    I appreciate mkelly's thoughts above on misunderstanding of products used to insulate stone buildings, some education of builders and govt encouragement of use of correct building materials (principally lime plaster and breathable insulation such as cork board or sheep's wool) would do a lot to both preserve existing properties and ensure heat is not lost in such buildings through the additional transfer occurring through damp walls.

  • Posted by wjh September 26, 2019 at 00:06

    Totally agree with the previous comment. A local farmer posted on FB showing him making a bonfire of sheep's wool because there's no market for it here :(

  • Posted by memnewb September 30, 2019 at 17:24

    Make it easy and affordable for everyone to improve their houses and they will.

  • Posted by Raindrop September 30, 2019 at 21:39

    Discounts on installation of PIV systems in old house to allow them to breathe more.

  • Posted by DocMills October 01, 2019 at 12:41

    Insulate all houses. One of biggest sources of carbon is home heating and one of the biggest wastes of energy is poorly insulated homes.

  • Posted by DocMills October 01, 2019 at 12:42

    Take a thermal image of every house in the Island to show the homeowner if and where their house is poorly insulated

  • Posted by paulweatherall October 02, 2019 at 11:43

    Grants should be improved to encourage all existing home owners to convert from oil and gas by 2045. This will need to include measures to improve insulation for the efficient use of heat pump technology. All new homes built on the Island after 2025 should not have oil or gas heating systems

  • Posted by nwmark October 04, 2019 at 14:23

    How about offering grants towards big ticket items such as Solar Power? I would like to fit Solar Panels to our house but the cost of it makes it cost prohibitive.

  • Posted by Manxie59 October 10, 2019 at 17:14

    The housing developers should definitely be made to adhere to highest spec' building regs and not slip thru Planning applications before the higher ones are implemented ie Dandara and the new Ballasalla proposed housing development.

    Also why can't new builds nowadays be fitted with PV on the roofs as standard procedure ie tiles that are PV cells

  • Posted by thatgreencouncillor October 10, 2019 at 22:25

    So.... from 31st December we move over to SAP calculations starting at 80 and working up to 97 by 2027.

    Leapfrog the lot and make 97 the standard for all new public sector housing schemes now. The builders will get their workers trained.

    Housing Policy says 25% of all houses in a scheme of 8 or more must be affordable housing. Give developers a waiver for this if they have 33% at 97 SAP. The builders will get their workers trained.

    To be eligible for first time buyer assistance a new build must be built to a SAP of 97, this will encourage builders to train their workers.

    Just try to bypass the incremental increase and great the workers trained once, job done.

    Fight climate change, fight fuel poverty.

    You can do this

  • Posted by Fell October 12, 2019 at 15:54

    The EU have legislated for all new properties from 2020 onwards to be built to 'near zero energy' standards.

    The ways that tis can be achieved are already well documented and developers are already building to these standards.

    The IOMG should follow this example and set a requirement for all new properties, including those now in the pipeline, to be built at a minimum to the NZEb standard. To allow time for this change a commencement date of January 2021 should be mandated.

  • Posted by zaphodbeeblebrox October 13, 2019 at 10:20

    >>>The EU have legislated for all new properties from 2020 onwards to be built to 'near zero energy' standards.

    >> The IOMG should follow this example and set a requirement for all new properties, including those now in the pipeline, to be built at a minimum to the NZEb standard. To allow time for this change a commencement date of January 2021 should be mandated.

    Totally agree with this 100%.

  • Posted by Griffdog October 13, 2019 at 14:08

    we need to do something about the amount of people with "log burners" burning anything and everything to save on heating costs but causing terrible local pollution by so doing.

    we don't have time to build a load of better houses so we have to work with what we have for now- An offshore wind farm could produce enough electricity for us all to heat our homes. changing gas central heating boilers to electricity could be encouraged by offering advice and assistance (not necessarily financial) to residents and landlords who do not know what is available.
    better insulation is an obvious solution but some people need help with the installation.
    encourage individuals and companies to install solar by having a better rate of return when it is sold back to the MUA
    offer help to residents of blocks of flats to work together where they don't have a proper functioning management committee.

  • Posted by manxfelipe October 13, 2019 at 21:09

    Tax on Logburners and a complete ban on the installation of Logburners in homes as they are heavily polluting and bad for people's health.

    Planning permission requiring builders to provide adequate storage space for bicycles in new build flats and houses. This should be within the individual premises and not in a separate car park.

    Oil and gas boilers to be prohibited from new builds.

    EV charge points on all new build houses.

    Incentives and grants to switch from oil and gas central heating.

  • Posted by Griffdog October 15, 2019 at 10:16

    I think there should be incentives to move to carbon neutrality by a series of reductions in rates. This will help improve the payback period when individuals are weighing up the financial cost of such jobs. E.g. Solar panels, ev car charging points, wind turbines, solar water systems, etc the same should apply to businesses.

  • Posted by FHorning October 15, 2019 at 21:52

    Rates modernisation is coming forward. It provides excellent opportunity to encourage insulation of homes by giving rates reductions to properties. For example, a 10% reduction could be given for properties with a SAP rating of 97 and above (passiv house standard).

  • Posted by WooWaaBob October 15, 2019 at 22:03

    Provide recognised training and certification programs for builder and architects so that consumers can be assured that home improvements are built to the very best standards available. No new builds or planning permission should be granted without being zero carbon or improving the efficiency of the building.
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