Keeping warm?

[2pints-mate 0]

Loverly central heating thank you.

 

I can't imagine living in a snowy snowy cold place in a wooden house with thin walls with just a kerosene heater to warm me! Sounds - - not good.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Its like living on a housing scheme in the 1970's (and early 80's) 2pints!!!

 

reminds me of being very young!!

[scouser 4]

Yes. I was amazed when I first came here and was told that was how I was to heat my cold cold aparto up with.

[rach 1]

Me too. Still am!

[Yuki's Passion 1]

It was 7 degrees in my house today!!

[Go Native 70]

In Australia there is this perception that Japan is some incredibly high tech modern country. Of course for those of us who live here, especially in rural Hokkaido this myth is quickly dispelled. What really made it hit home to me was when I went to get my Japanese driving license. When I went to pay for it the women behind the counter used an abacus!!

[iiyamadude 6]

Why do they still use them? Do they teach it at school?

[Tubby Beaver 209]

They have special schools where kids go....my girlfriend went to one when she was in JHS. I guess its a part of their culture/ heritage and some see it as a good thing to preserve. Japan IS a technologically gifted country, its just that they don't roll it out across the board!!

 

Their banking system, for god's sake, is in the middle ages!!! Why??

They can give you a heated toilet seat that plays a tune when you are using it but they can't make houses warm and insulated for winter?

 

This place cracks me up!!

[Go Native 70]

To a lesser degree it's like the rest of Asia. There's rich people and high tech stuff in the major cities but everywhere else it's practically 3rd world....

[soubriquet 0]

TB and GN are painting with a broad brush.

 

Modern Japanese homes are insulated, airconditioned and centrally heated. LNG followed by Kerosene are the two cheapest fuels for central heating.

 

My neighbourhood has been completely re-developed in the 3 years I've been here, and the building standards here exceed anything I've seen in Europe or Australasia. I've been intimately involved as a tradesman with the building industry for 30 years.

 

The rubbish which has been cleared is mostly post-war rubbish built on a halfpence while Japan went through its third revolution in 100 years.

 

Yamagata is clearly ahead of Kanto and Hokkaido. Here the houses are comfortable and efficient.

[stemik 14]

i feel that in the UK we tend to heat the whole house whereas in hakuba (can't speak for yamagata or Hokkaido) it tends to be just one room at a time.

but I guess 20 years ago japan was in the bubble and kero was a lot cheaper

i think modern is the key word here. Though our house is only 20 years old it does have a lot of cold spots which seriously need fixing fast.

[muikabochi 208]

 Quote:

Modern Japanese homes are insulated, airconditioned and centrally heated.

None of my Japanese friends have one like that.

[soubriquet 0]

We're not stupid enough to heat empty rooms. The radiators are switchable. Mostly they are off.

 

You are living in the wrong prefecture, muika. Clearly, Yamagata is streets ahead of Nigata. I've watched nearly 20 new houses go up over the past 3 years. They all have insulation, double glazing and central heating.

 

It's curious to read newspaper reports about population decline in rural Japan, and look out of the window to see families making 100 year investments in top quality housing. The bubble passed Yamagata by. Land is cheap, and people well educated here. In sleepy Oishida, we are getting a totally re-developed station front, and an expressway.

 

Next year we get fibre optic internet to the house. Orstrayans who have read this far should dwell on the debate between Telstra and the government as to whether the fibre-optic network (when it comes) should go to nodes or dwellings. This home is the most advanced of the many I have lived in and worked on, over 3 contintents.

[me jane 0]

Nor mine.

I think the northern houses are ahead of the Kanto ones. People in Kanto seem to think that as they have "4 perfect seasons", insulation is not needed.

[soubriquet 0]

We don't get any choice here, me jane. 12 metres of snow per winter concentrates the mind, very much, on how to deal with it. I guess in Kanto, you can adopt the UK solution and pretend that winter never comes. The pissibolity of 5cm of snow, maybe, once, some winter. It's OK.

[NoFakie 45]

Stemik

 

Get your place photographed with a thermal camera. It'll show what needs to be done. To the trained eye at least, if not to us.

 

No offence soubs, but inaka people building expressways etc. with public money is the standard pattern throughout Japan. Its also common for rezoned people to build nice houses with the compensation they get. Tohoku households use less toyu than Hokkaido but more than Niigata, just as you'd expect from the climate. That suggests that the houses are not significantly better or worse.

 

I agree that you can get a very good house in Japan. Maybe not quite as good as Scandi or Germany, but as good as other countries. You've just got to make the right choices and hook up with the right builder.

[thursday 1]

Fibre optics? Why, wasn't this put in back in the '98 telecom reshuffle?

 

I like Japan as it is. Being themselves and being themselves.

[stemik 14]

 Originally Posted By: Mr Wiggles

Stemik

Get your place photographed with a thermal camera. It'll show what needs to be done. To the trained eye at least, if not to us.

good idea, do you have a spare one?
Actually i kind of the know the cold spots they tend to be corridors and doorways.

[stemik 14]

 Originally Posted By: soubriquet

We're not stupid enough to heat empty rooms. The radiators are switchable. Mostly they are off.

of course we dont want to waste energy and heat empty rooms but with kids who want to go into every room. (and also give mum & dad some peace and quiet)
we have to have the boiler on 24hours in winter so it would make sense to pump this hot water into radiators?

[soubriquet 0]

Fair enough. Perhaps should try nailing the kids down.

 

Mr Wiggles is right about passive solar heating. The 3rd floor room I use as an office faces south and east. If there is any sun about, it needs very little top-up to keep at a very comfortable 18C

[Tubby Beaver 209]

at least in the UK tho Soubs, my houses have all had central heating, double glazing and proper insulation (except for the first one I lived in when I was really young) The council has been making sure all its housing have proper insulation heating etc

[soubriquet 0]

It weren't like that when I were a lad. All the housing stock was pre-war. We had leaky sash windows and open coal fires in every room, hence my attempted humour about not heating every room. Our special weapon was the Aga, 1/2 ton of hot metal and brick in the kitchen, a reservoir of warmth in a freezing house.

 

FWIW I grew a virginia creeper against a west facing wall in Perth. In summer, the shade reduced the brick temperature to something you could put your hand on. In autumn we got a show, and in winter the bare wall warmed in the sun.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

That was like my first house when I was young, coal fire in the living room, no double glazing. Some old flats are still like that, old insulation but they have added central heating and double glazing, it really makes the diff. I just wish I had it here.

[Go Native 70]

I'll tell you what I find the most incredible thing about the housing around where I live. We have what is one of the most beautiful mountains in the whole of Japan, Mt Youtei, right on our doorstep and very, very few Japanese built houses have put any thought whatsoever into house and window positioning to take advantage of the views. I know in Aus if someone is lucky enough to have a block that has a view of something nice they will generally build to take advantage of that. Even farmhouses where there is no restriction on how they should position their house will often have few if any windows to take advantage of the great view. And the crazy thing is that Youtei is to the south of us so having windows on that side of the house would help a lot with thermal heating. I just don't get it...

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I've noticed that windows here tend to be a lot smaller