For the benefit of non-UK readers, the headline advertisement for a house in the UK is typically “A well-kept four bedroomed house for £xxx,xxx”. The equivalent advertisement in Germany would be (translated) “A well-kept 140 m² house for €xxx.xxx”.
I saw a report recently which showed that the average size of a British house (in terms of floor area) had decreased, while the average across the EU (15 states) had increased. I believe that one of the factors behind this was the absence of floor area in the headline advertisements – house builders are able to houses with smaller rooms and get away with it in the UK, but not in Germany. BTW, for those who are interested, a typical British Energy certificate can be seen at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/319282.pdf. Steve was labouring under the misapprehension that the “Energy Certificate” was just the bar-chart in the middle of the certificate. _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys Sent: 21 May 2010 10:03 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:47399] RE: New Govt - effect on metrication (housing) Martin, Yes -that "A to F" green-to-red thing remains (it gives an energy efficiency rating in a simple to use red-green format with no need for figures and measures - although it's derived from them). I was referring to the floorspace info on the actual Hips pack. I will admit that it was only 2 odd-balls that made a song-and-dance out of that (and could not see the negative effect it created) but I thought I'd raise it to 'put it to bed'. It was annoying red tape from the state - so you can see I am delighted ;-) _____ From: [email protected] To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: RE: [USMA:47397] New Govt - effect on metrication (housing) Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 06:25:34 +0100 Steve, If you visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10130254.stm, you will see: The packs are paid for by sellers and contain property information, title deeds, and local searches. and The energy performance certificate, which ranks the energy efficiency of a home with A to G ratings, will be retained and must be produced by the seller within 28 days of putting a home on the market. It costs about £60. The only parts of the HIP that always contained measurements were the energy certificate (which is remaining in place). Martin _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Stephen Humphreys Sent: 20 May 2010 14:22 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:47397] New Govt - effect on metrication (housing) In the UK we have a new government. A couple of people cited 'HiPS' as a cause celebre regarding metric. I always found it an odd example since putting floorspace in metric on a form people will hate to fill out and pay for cannot surely be seen as selling metric? Anyhow - the new govt has scrapped it. No more HIPS I would suggest - however - that this is probably good for metric considering my observation above. ---------------- HIPS - stands for Home information Packs. Whereas estate agents used feet/in these forms used sq m. _____ Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up now. <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/197222280/direct/01/> _____ Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/197222280/direct/01/> now.
