Haven't we come a long way!!

hero25

For those of us born in the 70s, or even 60s or 80s (???) ..... I was in the shower last night, thinking as one does in the shower..... and it struck me, haven't we come a long way?
There I was in my power shower with its over-sized rain head, copious amounts of hot water, UFH on the tiled floor when i got out, the MHRV doing its thing .... and that was before I left the ensuite! (Tongue-in-cheek:) )
Compare that to the houses we grew up in the in 70s ..... and compare that to the houses our parents grew up in.
Haven't we come a long way in 2 generations?
What kind of houses will our grandchildren build in the future? What's next?

Thespoofer

hero25 wrote: »

For those of us born in the 70s, or even 60s or 80s (???) ..... I was in the shower last night, thinking as one does in the shower..... and it struck me, haven't we come a long way?
There I was in my power shower with its over-sized rain head, copious amounts of hot water, UFH on the tiled floor when i got out, the MHRV doing its thing .... and that was before I left the ensuite!
Compare that to the houses we grew up in the in 70s ..... and compare that to the houses our parents grew up in.
Haven't we come a long way in 2 generations?
What kind of houses will our grandchildren build in the future? What's next?

Fine for some.

_Brian

I think of the generation alive that saw electricity rolled out and homes lit up. I’m not sure another generation will see the same changes. 74years ago this week that rural electrification started.

eviltwin

I recently got smart lightbulbs and plugs in my house. Its amazing to be able to turn on or off a light and start the kettle without having to leave my bed. And add to that all the other things we have now that we take for granted...I mean, being able to pause/rewind live tv is something I still find pretty amazing.

Nalz

MHRV?

MarkR

Nalz wrote: »

MHRV?

I had to Google it too. Manual heat recovery something or other. OP is a hero. And master of TLA's (three, or in this case four letter acronyms!)

Ubbquittious

hero25 wrote: »

For those of us born in the 70s, or even 60s or 80s (???) ..... I was in the shower last night, thinking as one does in the shower..... and it struck me, haven't we come a long way?
There I was in my power shower with its over-sized rain head, copious amounts of hot water, UFH on the tiled floor when i got out, the MHRV doing its thing .... and that was before I left the ensuite! (Tongue-in-cheek:) )
Compare that to the houses we grew up in the in 70s ..... and compare that to the houses our parents grew up in.
Haven't we come a long way in 2 generations?
What kind of houses will our grandchildren build in the future? What's next?

You are probably paying dear for it though. In the 70s you could buy a massive house for £12,000. Wages were lower but not 20-30 times lower.


I didn't see much of the 80s but I dont remember being cold. We had a a range you could shovel a load of cheap coal into and there was grand haet off it

Stihl waters

Just out of my own shower and literally thinking the same thing, washing in the bath on a Saturday night in the bath water we all had to use and it going colder by the minute, it made me think of how well we've done in a couple of generations, great days indeed

And also I remember coming in from school in the winter and the inside of the single pane windows soaking because of condensation, triple glazed now in most new houses

NIMAN

Without wanting to put a dampener on it all, but aren't all these luxuries we have now part of the reason the planet is struggling?

No matter how sophistamicated we're becoming with renewable energies and what not, I'l still morn the passing of the olde Bord Na Mona peat briquette in a few years time, when the stocks run out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpbjGXGJNIU

lucalux

Saturday night or Sunday night bath time in the mid-90's is a very real memory.
Central heating was poor and single glazed windows so we'd pile in front of the open fire to get our pyjamas on.
Four of us so I don't know how clean we ever got sharing bath water after a week eughh

Literally had a bath once a week. Madness now!

the beer revolu

Growing up in the 70's and 80s our house was warmer than my house is now - it was mostly way too warm.
Always hot water on tap, too.
Energy conservation wasn't really a thing.

_Brian

NIMAN wrote: »

Without wanting to put a dampener on it all, but aren't all these luxuries we have now part of the reason the planet is struggling?

No.
Automated heat recovery systems save energy being consumed, as do triple glazed Windows. Automation of heating and appliances leads to lower energy consumption.

My current house I built ten years ago costs maybe €500 to heat with oil for the year, previous house I built in 1994 required three times the oil to maintain at a comfortable level. Technology will help solve many problems if it’s embraced and used correctly. We’re developing our own renewable fuel source to further reduce oil consumption to maybe half.

super_furry

The fire in the kitchen was the first thing to go on be at that heated the water, god forbid the immersion goes on. No central heating so on cold winter mornings the condensation on the inside of the bedroom windows had turned to ice.

I'm not even that old, but stuff like sounds like it's from the turn of last century.

NIMAN

_Brian wrote: »

No.
Automated heat recovery systems save energy being consumed, as do triple glazed Windows. Automation of heating and appliances leads to lower energy consumption.

What about more and more people burning oil worldwide, more cars on the road, air conditioning, more TVs, more games consoles, more tech generally.....

You trying to say we aren't using more energy now versus the 70s/80s?

This progress and more widespread improved standard of living has come at a cost.

_Brian

NIMAN wrote: »

What about more and more people burning oil worldwide, more cars on the road, air conditioning, more TVs, more games consoles, more tech generally.....

You trying to say we aren't using more energy now versus the 70s/80s?

This progress and more widespread improved standard of living has come at a cost.

We are.
But there are solutions to reduce consumption that can and are being implemented. People need to beleive what they are being told and act accordingly to reduce their energy wastage.

Stihl waters

Stihl waters wrote: »

Just out of my own shower and literally thinking the same thing, washing in the bath on a Saturday night in the bath water we all had to use and it going colder by the minute, it made me think of how well we've done in a couple of generations, great days indeed

And also I remember coming in from school in the winter and the inside of the single pane windows soaking because of condensation, triple glazed now in most new houses

The secret was having the bath in front of the cooker and the mother on kettle duty to keep topping up. It was 1970 before we got running water and a proper bathroom!

Ray Donovan

NIMAN wrote: »

Without wanting to put a dampener on it all, but aren't all these luxuries we have now part of the reason the planet is struggling?

Actually quite the opposite. OP has UFH which I presume means he has an Air to Water Pump (or Geothermal) which sources its energy from the air. So he is not using oil/gas to heat his house. He is dependent on Renewable energy so he is a actually doing his bit for the environment. And it cost him a pretty penny to install air to water, underfloor heating and heat recovery ventilation.

OP, don’t forget to change filters in your MHRV by the way.

Wibbs

eviltwin wrote: »

I recently got smart lightbulbs and plugs in my house. Its amazing to be able to turn on or off a light and start the kettle without having to leave my bed. And add to that all the other things we have now that we take for granted...I mean, being able to pause/rewind live tv is something I still find pretty amazing.

Thespoofer

Ray Donovan wrote: »

Actually quite the opposite. OP has UFH which I presume means he has an Air to Water Pump (or Geothermal) which sources its energy from the air. So he is not using oil/gas to heat his house. He is dependent on Renewable energy so he is a actually doing his bit for the environment. And it cost him a pretty penny to install air to water, underfloor heating and heat recovery ventilation.

OP, don’t forget to change filters in your MHRV by the way.

Unless a new council house, they all coming with UFC, heat pumps now.

Ubbquittious

NIMAN wrote: »

What about more and more people burning oil worldwide, more cars on the road, air conditioning, more TVs, more games consoles, more tech generally.....

You trying to say we aren't using more energy now versus the 70s/80s?

This progress and more widespread improved standard of living has come at a cost.

The extra insulation and fancy schmancy ASHP + M-HRV + UFH combos are stop gaps that temporarily shield us from the looming resource crunch that the past 50-70 or so years of overindulgence has set us up for

Someone better invent a cheap fusion reactor fast or many decades of shivering and rolling blackouts await

Mister Vain

Thespoofer wrote: »

Unless a new council house, they all coming with UFC, heat pumps now.

Ultimate Fighting Championship?

completedit

Sounds like a paragraph in a Dave Mcwilliams book

Edgware

hero25 wrote: »

For those of us born in the 70s, or even 60s or 80s (???) ..... I was in the shower last night, thinking as one does in the shower..... and it struck me, haven't we come a long way?
There I was in my power shower with its over-sized rain head, copious amounts of hot water, UFH on the tiled floor when i got out, the MHRV doing its thing .... and that was before I left the ensuite! (Tongue-in-cheek:) )
Compare that to the houses we grew up in the in 70s ..... and compare that to the houses our parents grew up in.
Haven't we come a long way in 2 generations?
What kind of houses will our grandchildren build in the future? What's next?

Worra bow the homeless Joe?

Thespoofer

Mister Vain wrote: »

Ultimate Fighting Championship?

UFH ! Good spot !

lucalux

super_furry wrote: »

The fire in the kitchen was the first thing to go on be at that heated the water, god forbid the immersion goes on. No central heating so on cold winter mornings the condensation on the inside of the bedroom windows had turned to ice.

I'm not even that old, but stuff like sounds like it's from the turn of last century.

I'm not even that old, but I had to peel off the ice from the single paned bedroom windows here last week, or whenever we had those few frosty days.

Feck, I've time travelled back to the past somehow. Anyone have the winning lotto numbers from 1978?:)

Hyperbollix

Grew up in a bungalow with single walls and glazing in the 80's and 90's. Had to light a fire every winter morning before work/school or we would be frozen to the kitchen chairs. Had a tiny open fire with a rubbish back boiler that would barely put blood heat in the rads. When we upgraded to a supperser, we felt like kings!

The idea of decent central heating and hot water at the flick of the switch or better yet, :eek: a timer to bring it in at a desired time.... It was like Star Trek stuff.

the beer revolu

NIMAN wrote: »

What about more and more people burning oil worldwide, more cars on the road, air conditioning, more TVs, more games consoles, more tech generally.....

You trying to say we aren't using more energy now versus the 70s/80s?

This progress and more widespread improved standard of living has come at a cost.

We seem to be making things more efficient but at the same time we are making more things that require energy.

So despite everything getting more efficient we still seem to be increasing our energy consumption!

humberklog

Pulling back the cold damp blankets, peeking out through the heavy garish curtains, lifting the damp to touch net curtains to make a circle with the palm of your hand in the condensation saturated single pane window to gaze out on the dust of snow below.
You fold your arms to rest them on the window sill, but forget there's a small water gully that collects condensation at the bottom of the window and you plonk your folded arms into it.

That, that cold stream of pencil thick cold water running down my arms is the 70's to me and I'm still a little wary of resting my arms on window sills in winter.

Thank f for modern insulation.

lucalux

lucalux wrote: »

Anyone have the winning lotto numbers from 1978?:)

∞, ∞, ∞, ∞, ∞, ∞ / ∞

Considering the lottery didn't start until sometime late 80s ...

lucalux

StevieHardesty wrote: »

∞, ∞, ∞, ∞, ∞, ∞ / ∞

Considering the lottery didn't start until sometime late 80s ...

Showing my real age, oops

I'm about to be locked up in the Central Mental Hospital so, these people are on to me...




(wait when did that open?!)

NIMAN

the beer revolu wrote: »

We seem to be making things more efficient but at the same time we are making more things that require energy.

So despite everything getting more efficient we still seem to be increasing our energy consumption!

My point exactly.

Its been pointed out the OP has a great setup, but they would be the exception to the rule.

Ireland as a country is full of terribly built houses, with poor insulation, and crap at retaining the heat that is generated.

lucalux

NIMAN wrote: »

My point exactly.

Its been pointed out the OP has a great setup, but they would be the exception to the rule.

Ireland as a country is full of terribly built houses, with poor insulation, and crap at retaining the heat that is generated.

And then, conversely, unbearable in any kind of heat. 2018 was a killer. No aircon and no domestic fans to be got anywhere

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

hero25 wrote: »

What kind of houses will our grandchildren build in the future? What's next?

Probably something in a wintery Mad-Max-esqe apocalypse driven by extreme climate inconcistency where electricity and petrol are currencies and our grandchildren are telling their kids of a time when we just had to press a button for hot water.

Happy days, huh?!

lucalux

lucalux wrote: »

(wait when did that open?!)

The hospital, which was established as the first secure hospital in Europe, opened as the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland in 1850 ...

I know - once past a certain age it all becomes a blur but if you remember that, then perhaps, maybe, that's where you belong.

[/End Thread Diversion]

For Forks Sake

Ubbquittious wrote: »

You are probably paying dear for it though. In the 70s you could buy a massive house for £12,000. Wages were lower but not 20-30 times lower.


I didn't see much of the 80s but I dont remember being cold. We had a a range you could shovel a load of cheap coal into and there was grand haet off it

You could also have the privelege of paying up to 17-18% interest on that mortgage

jaxxx

No.. .. ..

Doctors room ghost

I’d gladly go back to the 70s 80s.
We had less,but we appreciated what we had more and we fixed things instead of take it out and replace.
They were happier times.
We are living like kings and queens now,in a throwaway nation and we don’t realise how good we have it.
It’s a new world of mass produced,pointless plastic sh1te and we are the gormless fools who support it.

Strumms

We had a timer on the central heating that never worked... it was an oil system so from manually flicking the switch to feeling warm was about two hours..
Now in this place if the system isn’t programmed as in the timer I can switch it on from bed, sofa, wherever, place is stifling in 30 minutes, less. Place holds the heat great, childhood home was freezing 30 minutes after switching the heat off, properly iceberg cold.

About 6 poxy channels on TV... nothing was on demand. Sport was an event. With the arrival of screensport it was unreal. Now we have about 550 channels.

Bus timetables weren’t worth the paper they were printed on. Now they are written on our mobile phones. With how far away the bus is.

Strumms

Strumms wrote: »

About 6 poxy channels on TV...

It's been said before, plenty of times, 6 poxy channels were better then 1 really poxy channel.

Dáithí Lacha anyone? Bosco...? Wanderly Wagon? Christ, even the Angelus had better plot lines - and that's still running!

Strumms

StevieHardesty wrote: »

It's been said before, plenty of times, 6 poxy channels were better then 1 really poxy channel.

Dáithí Lacha anyone? Bosco...? Wanderly Wagon? Christ, even the Angelus had better plot lines - and that's still running!

Better certainly, but in the context of coming a long way, we have, that’s an example.

gogo

My home place was build around 1790... cold in the summer... freezing in the winter. To get dressed we would line up in front of the kitchen cooker to get warm... it was never let go out. Always had hot water but Christ the house was cold, even when oil was eventually put in... it still gets really cold if there’s no one there for any length of time.

We had one of those electric bar heaters in the bathroom, it was fixed to the wall above the bath, Christ when I think of it now, so dangerous, bearing in the mind there was probably never less than three of us kids in the bath at any one time....

JupiterKid

Ireland as a country, economy and society has changed beyond all recognition over the past 30 years, and for the better.

From being a church dominated theocracy in all but name, low educational attainment, low paid jobs, third world infrastructure, high persistent unemployment, economic mismanagement, political corruption, widespread poverty and especially child poverty - to being one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Between 1990 and 2010 the Irish "middle" class effectively more than doubled in size.

And largely thanks to our EU membership.

nextgengamer

Yes, hopefully we are all more aware of the terrible destruction that our consumerism has caused. We are destroying the environment, the animal and plant kingdom, changing the climate, forcing mass migrations, building up huge national debts, giving all our rights and responsibilities away to huge corporations, generating incredibly expensive housing.

What a ****ing mess and example to hand over to our kids.

I'm sure the response to this will be negative. But just pointing out the facts. We ****ed up during the Celtic tiger and we are continuing to **** up. We will be looked back on in 100 years with disgust. The selfish generation.

wally1990

eviltwin wrote: »

I recently got smart lightbulbs and plugs in my house. Its amazing to be able to turn on or off a light and start the kettle without having to leave my bed. And add to that all the other things we have now that we take for granted...I mean, being able to pause/rewind live tv is something I still find pretty amazing.

Smart kettle?
What?
Hang on
Explain

nextgengamer

Trying to put a positive spin on my previous post. But I can't. Really. We've copied bad aspects of consumer/capitalist culture and countries with much larger populations are doing same.

Yes, Ireland had come along incredibly, but we need to grow up and face the issues. Hopefully strong leadership from EU and Biden US can change things. Hopefully China, Russia, India ...get on board. The response to covid has shown that huge changes can happen quickly.

Anyway. Be good!

"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

Deemed as Normal

hero25 wrote: »

What kind of houses will our grandchildren build in the future?

Well I suspect they won't be by the shore!

_Brian

Deemed as Normal wrote: »

Well I suspect they won't be by the shore!

Or better, my house in Cavan will be by the seaside

NIMAN

Back to the original point of the thread, Ireland went from the famine to being one of the worlds richest countries and best places to live in 150 years. Appreciate we had a lot of pain and forgettable issues in-between.

But it is now a thoroughly modern and progressive country.

I think it is a great example of what can be done.
Yet we have many countries that are basket cases and don't show signs of any major improvement. I wonder will these countries still be unchanged in another 50 or 100 years?

fryup

yes we have come a long way from the bog brained backward days.... a lot to work on though esp towards other races and other religions still a lot of ignorance out there

but yes things have improved greatly, we're more open minded and dare i say..sophisticated

watch the beginning of this, now that's the ireland i remember from my youth...narrow roads narrow minds:cool:

hero25

Interesting reading in the various comments and the nostalgia of growing up in cold houses -can empathise with most of them! Apologies for the acronyms, I'd thought most were part of today's vernacular.
Was hoping to get an insight to future trends & technologies in house building & efficiencies .... what's coming? what's on the horizon? whats off the wall but could be the norm in 30 years time! (who'd have thought 30 years ago that we could heat the house using "normal air" - even in Winter!!)