Hacker News Reader

Comment by adrianN | Hacker News Reader

Imo you recoup the cost via the value of the building. Who wants to buy a drafty house with an oil furnace after 2030 or so?

View on HN

No one will pay more for a house with a higher R-value. If this were a determining factor, it would be part of real estate listings. It's a secondary or even tertiary concern for most people.

Where I live you even get better conditions on your loan if you buy a house with better insulation, it’s that important.

If you're buying a house without asking for the trailing twelve month energy bills, you are an unsophisticated real estate market participant and will pay for the ignorance over time.

> If this were a determining factor, it would be part of real estate listings.

It is part of real estate listings in the Netherlands, and it very much affects the value of the building. https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/nl/actueel/nieuws/meer-nie...

PEB grade systematically increases the value of a house less than 20% of the house value.

That's far too low to justify the huge sums involved in energy renovations.

20% of the building’s value sounds like a very generous sum for new windows and insulation.

20% is if you insulate your roof and walls, get triple-glazed windows, heat pump with floor heating and solar panels.

That is going to cost quite a bit.

If a home were priced as little at $200,000 then 20% would cover $40k in investments. Homes around here don't sell for the little.

Assuming your percentage is correct and home prices are much bigger it makes it seem like a spectacular investment. Actually too good to be true of an investment.

If the return were 2% or max 5% I could see it maybe not being worth it depending on home prices in your area.

20% is if you insulate your roof and walls, get triple-glazed windows, heat pump with floor heating and solar panels.

That is going to cost in the €150K-€200K range in Europe for a €400K, 150 m^2 house.

In which country do you live? In Germany, it is 100% the other way around.

In the US, this is so true and sad. After building my first home with insulation way beyond code I learned the sad lesson that it won't get you a dime more when it is time to sell.

We keep in touch with the new owners who have since thanked us for building so well. Their bills are much lower than any in the neighborhood and they had no idea.

The same goes for heat pumps. I'm living in my third build and we had room to do a ground source heat pump. It is amazing and my bills are half of what my neighbor pays for a similar size house. Mine is also better insulated. When it comes time to sell it, nobody will care.

The US needs to up the codes on insulation. Hot climate, cold climate - who cares, it helps.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com