Moving in the right direction

Event 1: Low energy usage = higher value of the house
When consumers are looking for a new home, they should be able to see the energy requirement in the house for sale. The Liberal-Conservative government in Denmark will now make it a legal obligation on estate agents to advertise with the energyquotient (energy usage per square meter) of homes for sale.

Comment 1: We welcome energyquotients
All efforts that will incentivate families to isolate and perform other tasks that will reduce the power used for heating/cooling their houses are most welcome. If all the houses sold are marked with a energyquotient - the market will gradually adjust and the sellers with the most energy-efficient houses will get more for their houses.

I have previously argued that politicians should add incentives to kick-start homeowners, and the possible actions that have been discussed earlier are:

• Information campaign
• you save money, get an improved indoor climate and contribute to "saving the planet" as a bonus
• Remove the most critical hurdle (the high up-front investment that scares most homeowners)    
• Cheap loans for home improvement projects focused on energy efficiency (ref interest free loans over 10 years in France)
• Reduce the price of these projects 
• Capital grants: Enova in Norway can for certain type of projects grant up to 1000 USD (but this program does not include isolation, air-to-air heatpumps, or ventilation systems)      
• Tax benefits (remove VAT on these products, and give homeowners a taxrelief if their house is energy efficient - ref USA)
• Improve the benefits for such projects
• Increase the price of electrical power (for Norway this means, get in synch with EU): This will cause many projects aimed at reducing the use of electrical power to get a short return on investment (ROI). What you pay per year to the bank for the related "jahus" loan (in Norway: "Husbanken", I hope...) will only be a fraction higher than what you save on your yearly electricity bill. 
• Introduce the energyquotient as a mandatory element of all house sale transactions: this will further incentivate homeowners who initiate "jahus" projects - because the value of the house increases. This benefit will more than make up for the gap mentioned above (loan payments vs savings on the yearly electricity bill)          
• Not all benefits can be measured in dollars: you get improved indoor climate (and hence better health), and good conscience as a result of the fact that the family contributes to the global efforts to save the planet.      

In Norway, it is mandatory to include such a energyquotient for all house sale transactions from July 1st 2010. The system includes energy quotients from A and B (will only be given to the so-called low-energy and passive houses), while houses built by today's standards will generally get C and D. The three lowest grades are awarded to older houses that are not repaired ("nei-hus"). To read more on this topic (in Norwegian):
"Nå skal huset ditt energimerkes"
"Energimerking av hus" (Enova)

Jahus Progress (part 2):
The Project Leader now told us to power on the aggregate again - they had just forgot to do that yesterday.

He also told us to remove the ice under the heatpump and then turn it back on. It does not seem to bother him that the company that imports these heatpumps told us to first thaw the heatpump with hot water or a hairdryer on a long extension cord (to remove all the ice from the outlets for the condensated water and the air intake on the side).

After months of trying, I finally received a response directly from the manufacturer of the ventilation aggregate. He told us that our aggregate can be managed by a central management system based in for example input from a CO2 meter - when the air quality is bad, the aggregate increases the amount of fresh air that is delivered to the house and vice versa. I have also found a couple of companies who can deliver the required networking CO2 sensors. This might be the next project once the current project has been completed.

I also asked him about the problem (described earlier) when the aggregate stops operating below -10C (the rotating heat exchanger stops rotating). I hope that this direct contact works better and faster than the current support line via the ventilation team that installed the appliance.