One German town goes overboard on 'green' living.

[Cobol74]

These Germans are so green they paint their veg green and it started as green in the first place!

[efoolution]

What the article doesn´t mention is that this only aplies for new build houses and if the owner of an old house completley renovates his roof (you can still "fix" it, but no "new build"). They can´t force People who don´t do anything (right of continuance).
AND, like it´s said in the article ... laws like this exist in possibly all german cities ... this is just the first for solar-thingies ...
If you (for example) decide your old house needs new windows, laws in most towns forbid you to get single glazing, if you have single glazing nothing happens ... but if you get new windows or build a new house you have to get double or more glazing - no matter if it costs you more or if you don´t want it. It´s basically the same type of law ... Towns have loads of them ... it´s nothing that unusual.

Apart from that, I think it´s wrong to do such a thing for solar-power. If they wanted this so badly, they should just give the People Money for "going solar" ... not force them to do it.

[MacGuffin]

People these days are rather quick with comparisons to Nazis or Fascists, that the deterrent meaning of those terms seems to get undermined by it more and more.

I suspect that most of those who use these terms so lightheartedly and quickly, don't even have the slightest idea what they really represent and mean. Instead I suspect they rather connect their idea of a "Nazi" to those cartoon Nazis in moronic war movies like "Where Eagles dare" or the ridiculous "stuntmen-posing-as-Nazis-who-cannot-even-spell-'Führer'-right" caricatures from the Indiana Jones movies. How cute...

When I see or hear terms like "grammar Nazi" or when a certain group of people is compared to or called Nazis, I always wince. It seems that especially the English-speaking world is rather unconcerned with the use of such vocabulary - maybe because they feel safe to use it, having won the war after all, beating Hitler's regime in the process, driving him into suicide, destroying most of Germany in the process, yadda yadda yadda...

But they tend to forget that the term "Nazi" nowadays rather describes a certain state of mind that is able to grow anywhere in the world (and does actually), than an enemy you can simply kill. There are left wing politicians in the world who are closer to Hitler in their state of mind, than to Lenin.

And because it is yet to be found out how a state of mind can be shot to death, I'd be careful with the careless use of said terms

[Peter3hg]

I've thought for years that solar panels should be compulsory when new housing estates are built. By this I am only talking about large developments, not some guy just building his own house. Considering the average house price is around £150,000 over here, the extra needed for solar panels would likely add less than 1% if bought in bulk.

We have had solar heated water for over 5 years now and it's brilliant, we never have to turn the gas on at all from April-October (electric cooker) and on most days we get two full tanks of 80+ centigrade water. Even on overcast days there is enough to do the usual washing and to run a few bath fulls of water. All in all it has slashed the household gas bill by ~60% per annum.

[Cobol74]

Wot you living up North?

Can't get a rabbit hutch for 150k here, you are looking at 225k. for a half decent house.

[hajj]

I think he means building costs, those should not differ that much across the UK. It's the land that makes the difference. Otherwise the 150k make no sense at all.

[Cobol74]

Oh yes, ever tried to get planning permission here then? Is difficult, everyone but everyone objects and there are not enough schools, infrastructure or Hospitals so the council rolls over. The land cost with planning permission makes up the difference.