As with so many govt initiatives and policies here, the attempts to cut energy use in buildings are stymied by a failure to be thorough about the technology and about implementation. Houses need to be ventilated, but we get told to stop up all drafts because of the energy lost when hot air leaves the house – the result is problems with condensation, about which a housing officer in my city has recently been telling me. The solution is to install vetilation methods that arrange for the warm air leaving the house to warm up the cold air entering – other countries do that. On the implementation front, we keep on hearing about house builders as ever not doing the job properly, and nobdy does anything about enforcement. Yesterday I was talking to a German who wants me in a bid to a UK govt dept for a study contract: his bid includes two serious technology people from technical universities on the continent, and that reminded me that time after time I see continental technical universities getting good business from the EC because of their competence in areas that really make a difference. Perhaps we in the UK are at heart a nation of shopkeepers and smallholders, plus a few intellectuals.
Lynne Featherstone 
As with so many govt initiatives and policies here, the attempts to cut energy use in buildings are stymied by a failure to be thorough about the technology and about implementation. Houses need to be ventilated, but we get told to stop up all drafts because of the energy lost when hot air leaves the house – the result is problems with condensation, about which a housing officer in my city has recently been telling me. The solution is to install vetilation methods that arrange for the warm air leaving the house to warm up the cold air entering – other countries do that. On the implementation front, we keep on hearing about house builders as ever not doing the job properly, and nobdy does anything about enforcement. Yesterday I was talking to a German who wants me in a bid to a UK govt dept for a study contract: his bid includes two serious technology people from technical universities on the continent, and that reminded me that time after time I see continental technical universities getting good business from the EC because of their competence in areas that really make a difference. Perhaps we in the UK are at heart a nation of shopkeepers and smallholders, plus a few intellectuals.