Free insulation as Rudd tries to revive economy

[Bayside]

.....there's a business opportunity for the recently unemployed. .....

Itchy horrible stuff to work with. Can think of better things to do for a living

 

[Pablo]

So does does anyone know the cost of having insulation installed for a average sized house?

 

[AUSPROP...]

I paid for insulation about a year ago. I miss out again.

 

[islandgirl]

I've been meaning to organise the insulation for ages but haven't got around to it. I've off to Bunnings this week before they run out of stock!

 

[auror]

just want to draw ppl's attention to this;
http://pm.gov.au/media/Release/2009/media_release_0783.cfm

Under this Energy Efficient Homes package, homeowners will be able to access either the insulation program or the solar hot water rebate.

just something to keep in mind if you want to get the solar hot water rebate too?

 

[RumpledElf]

I want to insulate but i have a skillion roof, so the whole roof has to come off to insulate. And there's a newish solar hws on the roof that needs to be drained and removed first. So I'd like to know htf I can get 'free' insulation, since there is a $1600 cap.

 

[jaycee]

I want to insulate but i have a skillion roof, so the whole roof has to come off to insulate. And there's a newish solar hws on the roof that needs to be drained and removed first. So I'd like to know htf I can get 'free' insulation, since there is a $1600 cap.

you get up to $1600 off the cost like the rest of us....

someone who may have a house with a roof pscae of 12 suqare kilmoteres wont get it for free either

are you having a go at the foffer, or the way some reporter or editor used the word "free" about this ?

my ppor already has instainsualtion, think it cost $400 all up

read in the paper today though that hot water systems fall under this offer as well ? (page 5 West Australian )

 

[LynnH]

Well, the PPOR has both insulation and solar hot water already ... so no $$ for me.

I note that there's also a rebate for insulating IPs - I wonder how many IPs you can claim this rebate for???

Cheers
LynnH

 

[oldjonesy]

you get up to $1600 off the cost like the rest of us....

someone who may have a house with a roof pscae of 12 suqare kilmoteres wont get it for free either

are you having a go at the foffer, or the way some reporter or editor used the word "free" about this ?

my ppor already has instainsualtion, think it cost $400 all up

read in the paper today though that hot water systems fall under this offer as well ? (page 5 West Australian )

Sounds like it will not cost anywhere near $1600 to insulate the roof. Might be better going with the solar hot water

 

[jaycee]

Sounds like it will not cost anywhere near $1600 to insulate the roof. Might be better going with the solar hot water

I tried to say that I already have insulation (although I typed it as "instainsualtion" before, my tyuping sucks for an IT person, luckily those who know me know what to expect), cost me about $400 over 7years ago

hws sounds good of course, as we have crap and inefficient common boilers servicing all t/houses in the complex , floated the idea of installing indivudal hws, a lot of owners whinged about the strata manager asking for too money again (?) besides too many a rented ot so if they dont qualify it wont get done

joys of owning common property

is it solar hws ? it will never get agreed to....

 

[poppy]

They say that owner occupiers will be eligible if they "have no insulation", I'm interested to know how they define and/or police this.

Ie if I have a thirty year old house which has had some form of insulation installed twenty years ago that is now a bunch of dust blowing around in the roof, can I get the "free" insulation and who decides/enforces whether I "have no insulation" or not???

 

[atti]

WHILE we are on this ROOF subject, is there a company that goes around and vacume your roof of inch of 60+ years of dust ?? its an itchy dirty job, just wondering what equitment would be needed cause i went up on mine with a vacume cleaner and the dust mite all laughed at me

maybe i can start a quick business on cleaning up ceiling dust before all these insulation thing gets passed.

 

[INVSTOR]

My cousin was an accountant and he hated it so he started up his own insulation business in Brisbane. I bet he's laughing now.

 

[DavidMc]

On the plus side as insulation is expensive to transport 90% of it is made here. So that's a lot of Aussie made product sold, lots of CO2 saved and less demand on our power supply.

 

[AUSPROP...]

On the plus side as insulation is expensive to transport 90% of it is made here. So that's a lot of Aussie made product sold, lots of CO2 saved and less demand on our power supply.

what's it made of tho? am guessing some form of imported oil product?

 

[bailz66]

Im not sure if we will be able to get it.

We have insulation (a fiber or wool blend installed in the late 60's which has basically turned to dust now)

Im thinking i might get rid of whats in there and get the subsidy but dont know if thats possible or not based on whats in there currently

 

[farmilor]

WHILE we are on this ROOF subject, is there a company that goes around and vacume your roof of inch of 60+ years of dust ?? its an itchy dirty job, just wondering what equitment would be needed cause i went up on mine with a vacume cleaner and the dust mite all laughed at me

maybe i can start a quick business on cleaning up ceiling dust before all these insulation thing gets passed.

Hi Atti

There are quite a few of these companies around the place. We recently had ours done through a company called 'leadalert'. Just do a quick google for ceiling vaccuum or something similar.

 

[RumpledElf]

you get up to $1600 off the cost like the rest of us....

are you having a go at the foffer, or the way some reporter or editor used the word "free" about this ?

The way they said 'free', it is extremely misleading as there is a cap.

It would cost me $400ish to do it myself so $400 out of pocket, but a hell of a lot of work.

It would cost me easily $4000 or more (judging by all the pained looks people give me when I've got recent reroof quotes - remember almost the ENTIRE roof needs to come off and go back on) to get someone else to do it. So $4000-1600 = $2400 out of pocket. As far as I'm concerned that's as good as not qualifying for something advertised as 'free' insulation. FYI, my reroof quotes have ranged from $8000-$13,000 and most of that is labour, its a small house but has some very 'interesting' things in the roof construction, mainly involving part of the roof embedded in cement

I already have a solar hws, it would have to be drained and removed and then reinstalled to install the insulation, which would require a plumber.

I've been offered a free reroof from a mate. Free as in beer but I pay for the iron at wholesale cost. The plan always was to insulate and rewire the house when the roof is off as skillion rooves are such a totally irritating pain in the bum for anyone to work with.

The house I insulated two years ago has a beautiful, easy to access roof space, loads of room up there (I could put in a loft if I wanted), nice big manholes in easy to get to areas, cost about $600 in insulation and had I got a professional would have cost me maybe 2-3 hours labour. Why didn't they have this insulation thingy 2 years ago

 

[jaycee]

The way they said 'free', it is extremely misleading as there is a cap.

It would cost me $400ish to do it myself so $400 out of pocket, but a hell of a lot of work.

It would cost me easily $4000 or more (judging by all the pained looks people give me when I've got recent reroof quotes - remember almost the ENTIRE roof needs to come off and go back on) to get someone else to do it. So $4000-1600 = $2400 out of pocket. As far as I'm concerned that's as good as not qualifying for something advertised as 'free' insulation. FYI, my reroof quotes have ranged from $8000-$13,000 and most of that is labour, its a small house but has some very 'interesting' things in the roof construction, mainly involving part of the roof embedded in cement

I already have a solar hws, it would have to be drained and removed and then reinstalled to install the insulation, which would require a plumber.

I've been offered a free reroof from a mate. Free as in beer but I pay for the iron at wholesale cost. The plan always was to insulate and rewire the house when the roof is off as skillion rooves are such a totally irritating pain in the bum for anyone to work with.

The house I insulated two years ago has a beautiful, easy to access roof space, loads of room up there (I could put in a loft if I wanted), nice big manholes in easy to get to areas, cost about $600 in insulation and had I got a professional would have cost me maybe 2-3 hours labour. Why didn't they have this insulation thingy 2 years ago

on the flip side, I could just imagine someone else, if it was free wihtout a cap, complaining that thrich pple were getting $5000 of free insulation in their multmillion $ massive mansions....whilst their house gets a few hundred $ worth only... not fair.....

there is always something to compalin about if you look hard enough....

I paid for my own insualtion about 6 years ago & I cant get the hsw casue i live in a complex with already installed common boilers.... do I blame the govt for that too ?

 

[LynnH]

On the plus side as insulation is expensive to transport 90% of it is made here. So that's a lot of Aussie made product sold, lots of CO2 saved and less demand on our power supply.

An interesting article in today's AFR ...

"Chill warning on batts bonus

The federal government's plan to pour $3.9 billion into making homes energy efficient could be largely lost to imports because businesses producing insulation in Australia are already stretched to capacity.

The two major providers of ceiling installation (sic) in Australia , CSR and Fletcher Building, could also perversely lose business from the spending on 2.7 billion homes because potential future domestic sales will be lost to imports as households rush to meet the 2011 deadline, Citigroup analysis warns.

"In our view, it may not be easy to execute, and may have unintended consequences for CSR," Citigroup's Julian Bu said in a research note.

.....

"To implement the Rudd plan, vast imports may have to be ordered," Mr Bu said.

.....

Mr Bu said CSR's insulation market could be permanently depleted within three years because imports would crowd out potential longer term sales.

.....

Economists and other analysts said government intervention often led to unintended consequences ..... "With Pink Batts, all you're doing is diverting resources from one sector of the economy to the other .. you're not actually benefiting unemployed people".

.....

Another analyst said: "It's a water tank thing all over again, where you have a boom in the supply of water tanks and then people go broke."

....."

To read the full article, check out today's AFR, print version, page 9. (Sorry, couldn't find the article on the AFR website).

Yet another lot of "unintended consequences" ..... yet another example of a government clutching at a 'plan' (any plan), so that it looks like Rudd & Co are actually doing something. Have they ever thought to actually consult someone in the industry to see whether such brilliant ideas are actually viable - or do-able?

And our children - and grandchildren - are going to be paying for this mess how many years into the future???

Cheers
LynnH