Daft Property - Irish Property News

Will your home pass the test?... From next month, all houses on the market will have to have a Building Energy Rating certificate. What does this mean for homeowners, renters and landlords? WHEN THE Building Energy Rating (BER) assessor came by it was a cold two degrees outside and we were all wearing our fleeces indoors - even with the blinds down, curtains drawn and the heating on. Good recyclers and energy-conscious home owners, we thought we'd do okay. We knew we would be nowhere close to the top of the scale but we thought we might scrape through with a D. The house was partially carpeted. We had blinds on our double-glazed windows and draught proofing on the front doors. However, the assessor, James Carroll of greenthinking.ie, explained how the cavity walls were letting cold air in. Pumping polystyrene bead insulation into the cavities would be the only way to reduce this huge loss of heat, he explained. Meanwhile, our stylish flame-effect gas fires were merely cosmetic, he

Irish use of resources not sustainable, says Gormley... IRISH PEOPLE are "living beyond our environmental means" and are using too much of the planet's resources, Minister for the Environment John Gormley will tell a sustainable development conference today. Mr Gormley was referring to a recent report commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which found that if everyone in the world consumed as much as an Irish person, three planets would be needed to sustain the world's population. The report also found that meeting policy targets in relation to the reduction of the State's "ecological footprint" would not be enough to live within the capacity of global resources. Speaking ahead of his address to the annual conference in Dublin today of Comhar, the sustainable development council, Mr Gormley said Ireland must rein in its consumption of resources. " We are living beyond our environmental means. If everybody in the world consumed as

Changing times for " 21st-century Ireland, where people are looking for ways to reduce both their spending and their negative impact on the environment"... Recycling the good old days... WHAT'S THE STORY WITH WARTIME NOSTALGIA BOOKS? 'Knickers renewed - one good pair from two old pairs; here's how to manage it," begins one snappy article from a collection of pamphlets originally published by the British government during the second World War and which have recently appeared in book form. The trick, apparently, is to cut a new gusset from the back of one pair and neatly sew it into place on the other pair and off you go, good as new. Make Do and Mend contains dozens of original facsimile leaflets offering hundreds of tips on how to make everything from carpets and gloves to saucepans and blinds last a whole lot longer. There are details on how to darn deftly and instructions on how best to convert a tired pair of men's pyjamas into a reinvigorated summer f