Whenever they have a spike in demand, the de-regulated prices go up by several hundred percent. Example

  • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    New houses or ones built in the 1960’s? If its new houses, how does code not specify a minimum R value? Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      texas doesn’t require a specific r-value for walls in the southern third of the state. (the rest it’s r-5). They do require some insulation in an attic.

      Most (cheap) homes don’t slap up insulation if they don’t have to. and r-5 is an extremely low value.

      and further, that’s only on new houses. There’s plenty of old houses still in circulation and the vast majority of the old houses are entirely uninsulated. a properly insulated house, you can keep rooms warm just by being in them. we saw that’s not true of homes in texas during the big freeze a while back.

      Its not just about keeping heat in in the winter, its needed to keep the heat out in the summer.

      that’s this sarcastic comment was about:

      (Why would you want to insulate against heat, right? global warming is a woke-ist hoax! /s)

      • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        When I was growing up the people across the street had an uninsulated houses – in NW Wisconsin.

        I guess Texas is going to do Texas things but with the heat and the grid falling apart every couple of years, they really should mandate the same level of insulation that we do up north.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yeah… I’m in MN.

          It’s not like we don’t get triple digits ourselves in recent years. And it really does come down to shaving down those construction costs. The insulation would pay for itself in like 2 years, though.

        • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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          4 months ago

          they really should mandate

          That sound you hear is Texas loudly pushing back on any sort of gubmint infetterance.