Apps, passive housing and zero carbon - the year ahead in home improvement
This year I finally succumbed to the usefulness of a smart phone and finished up at the most inspiring conference I’ve ever attended during my time writing on property.
Despite the water wars, the desperate need for entry-level housing stock, and cunning hike in bills and charges, things are looking up for 2016.
This year the app, that small instructional tool you can download to your computer or portable device, has finally come of age, with genuinely useful and often completely free products for any homemaker.
We’re all now familiar with apps that help choose paint colours, turn on the heating and manage our security from abroad. ‘There’s an app for that’ has been a chant year-long — paralysing extreme screen zombies.
Still, belt-and-braces budget and consumer apps that help us critique products and manage our spending are intelligent additions, and should be a staple for everyone from students setting up their first homestead, to retired household veterans.
John Lowe, the Irish Money Doctor has his own free app.
“This is a really simple app — just record every time you spend money into categories on the dropdown menu and as soon as you click the ‘end report period’ button, instantly you will receive a spending report for that period for you or your professional adviser to analyse and perhaps change on some of those spending habits.” (moneydoctor.ie.)
“Reep Rewards” — described by its operators as ‘real-time, cross-market shopper-intelligence’ is a useful weapon on the go, letting your phone know when special offers are near from a variety of brands including Aldi, Tesco and Homestore.
It offers a cash-back service simply using a digital snap of your receipt — a marketing device sweeping the world and termed as ‘kicks’. It’s all about instant gratification.
Outdoors, the companion gardening app has earned its place in the trug, offering not only encyclopaedic planting advice when you’re at the garden centre, but prompting with alarms and reminders of what individual plants and crops may need week to week, even keying in the vagaries of the weather.
Try PlantSnapp or FlowerChecker a means to identify a species of plant, flower, even a scrap of moss by uploading a quick picture (Apple).
Evernote is useful for the truly organised who want a virtual spreadsheet of their garden and its individual ingredients, and is available in a free or updated paid version.
Retention of the Home Renovation Incentive Scheme until December 2016:
To be honest, I’m delighted and surprised that this scheme is still in place.
If you’re not familiar with this valuable financial claw-back, keep in mind that it reduces your outlay on a renovation adventure, but prompts you to get what is considered the good, upright taxpaying trades for the job, with an over-arching bureaucracy as standard.
In short, The Home Renovation Incentive is a tax relief in the form of a tax credit at 13.5% (redeeming that irritating Vat), of qualifying expenditure on repair, renovation, or improvement works.
These works must be carried out on your main home or rental property by Home Renovation Incentive qualifying contractors (there’s a list online).
The smallest spend that is up for the credit is €4,405 before Vat to a maximum of €30,000 before Vat, so the top number with all your figures in a row and paid back the next year through revenue, would be €4,050.
If you were frightened off extending or renovating by the The Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2013 — that was binned by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly in April for one off self-build houses and domestic extensions.
However, if you are already signed up, you may still be obliged to complete the process. All the statutory obligations of the building regulations remain, and you would be wise to exceed the requirements of the regulations for energy performance where possible.
As I wrote earlier this year, it’s worth chatting to your architect about including certification in your project if it can be delivered with sense and economy.
All building completed by developers all around you, will continue to require certification and SI-9 certification will doubtless stand as a mark of quality in the future marketing of those houses and apartments.
Make no mistake, there’s a passionate struggle going on right now among local authorities, industry, government and academics, to come to a new standard of energy efficiency for new builds, both commercial and domestic.
Next year, this will be played out as never before.
This may be a very exacting and potentially expensive passive house standard, hinged to no little part on the headline-grabbing developments in the chambers of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Fine Gael councillor Marie Baker led an initially controversial charge to include passive house standard as part of its Draft Development Plans for 2016-2020.
The motion finally passed in October against the advice of the Minister for the Environment.
Ms Baker told me at the “See the Light” conference held by the Passive House Association of Ireland in CIT last month that she was focused on getting social housing right, first time, by reaching for the acknowledged benefits of an energy- efficient passive house standard, having been deeply affected by a visit to a house in the area.
Passive house has very particular parameters, including a design to make maximum use of south or south westerly orientation, high air tightness performance, triple glazing to doors and windows and managed ventilation with heat recovery.
The Construction Industry Federation led by director Hubert Fitzpatrick, is not amused, citing the Department of Environment as the strategists for the future not local authorities.
Something has to give.
Hopefully an affordable solution along passive house lines will make Ireland a beacon of progress in the move towards the EU Zero 20/20 directive (member states shall ensure that by December 31, 2020, all new buildings are nearly zero energy buildings).
I would encourage everyone, in particular the unbelievers, to sit back, open your mind and listen to the riveting presentation by Ms Baker at CIT which you can see here.
Have a very happy Christmas.
The most interesting trend prompting next year’s interiors scene is yet another reason to smile, as it’s affordable and excites creativity rather than frenzied cash spends and plumy designer buys.
The outside-indoors influence promises to bring fresh living greenery and natural wonders and back into the house.
Feathery house plants (beyond the odd cactus or gem sized succulent), rustic wood surfaces and rugged textured concrete will refresh our jaded urban souls.
Putting some luxe on the look, large specimen sized minerals such as quartz will be flashing from the shelves at the local home store to use as door-stops and hefty conversation pieces.
Furniture that can be enjoyed in light rain out on the patio but which looks and performs equally well dragged back in through the French door, again strengthens out connection with the world beyond.
If you’re looking for containers for planting indoors, vouch for boldly coloured geometric led pieces that might have been printed in 3D, a fashion dubbed ‘disrupt’ for the burgeoning industry in computer printed interior goods which will also download to the market in the next six months.
I was amazed to see friends wearing smart, digitally printed bow ties during parties over the season.
Things really are changing.
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