How warm is your home?

Now I know that average the room temperature of a British home is at 17.5C. This reminds me two things: the first is that I had to sleep with my sweater and jacket on when I was in a home stay in London because it was so cold. The room temperature was at about 12C. That really surprised me, and froze me as well; the second is when health visitors came to my flat to see how my son is taken care of soon after he was born, they were surprised that we kept the room temperature at above 20C. Their official suggestion is to keep room temperature at 17-18C to prevent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrom). Well, I don't think any family in Taiwan is able to keep room temperature well below 20C and SIDS is not that common in Taiwan. Maybe that's just another myth.

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3 March 2011 Last updated at 02:34 GMT

How warm is your home?
By Megan Lane

Our homes are getting warmer just as the powers-that-be are asking us to turn our thermostats down. How cool is too cool for a house?
Spring is in the air in the UK, but it will be weeks - if not months - before the nation's radiators switch off.

The average indoor temperatures of British houses are creeping up now central heating is the norm, and double glazing and insulation are added to older, draughtier homes.

In the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's new online modelling tool My 2050, users can decide what they want the UK to be like in 39 years' time. The only caveat? Carbon emissions must drop 80% while keeping the lights on.

It shows that hitting this target requires more than extra wind turbines or nuclear power stations. How many cars should be electric? Should international shipping grow or shrink?

Continue reading the main story Government drive My 2050 is web application for Department of Energy and Climate ChangeThey want to cut emissions by 80%Design your own virual future with My 2050
And, most immediate to personal comfort, should the average indoor temperature of British houses continue to rise, stay roughly the same at 17.5C (63.5F), or fall?

Dropping it to 16C - the lowest setting in this virtual world - only shaves 7% off carbon emissions. Even if we all get in the habit of wearing woollies inside, this will still feel chillier than usual to most people.

David MacKay, the DECC's chief scientific adviser, practises what he preaches in his once draughty semi-detached 1940s house. As well as double glazing and insulation, he has turned the heating right down.

"When I'm at home, my normal thermostat settings are roughly 13C, but lower when I am out, and 15C, briefly, at getting-up time in the morning. One important additional rule is that whenever I feel cold, I turn the thermostat up as high as I like. The automatic thermostat control then turns it back to the normal settings a few hours later."

He hopes that insulating more homes, smarter thermostats and "the promotion of sweater-wearing by sexy personalities" will encourage more people to follow suit.

Wrap up warm to get cosy
But to many, a thermostat set in the low teens may sound unconscionably frugal - especially when the range of numbers commonly goes from 10 to 30C.

Comfort cannot be defined absolutely, but the World Health Organization's standard for warmth is 21C (70F) in a living room and 18C (64F) elsewhere.

Our expectations of thermal comfort have been raised by central heating at home and at work, and because we are more sedentary at home and at work. Those sitting still - in front of the TV or at a computer - feel the cold quicker than someone moving about.

"A human's perception of whether they feel warm depends on what they are doing, and what they've been doing for the past hour or so," says Dr MacKay in his book Sustainable Energy - Without The Hot Air.

According to one widely quoted model, devised in 2008 by the Building Research Establishment and used in My 2050, average indoor temperatures have risen from 12C in 1970 to about 17.5C (63.5F) today.

But, says Michelle Shipworth of the UCL Energy Institute, this model assumes we are turning our thermostats up, to explain why energy use hasn't gone down as homes have become more energy efficient.

What has happened, she says, is that we now heat more rooms, and for longer.

Continue reading the main story Living room temperatures18-21C - comfortable temperature9-12 or 24+C: Risk of stroke and heart attack21-24C or 16-18C - some discomfort12-16C - risk of respiratory diseaseLess than 9C - risk of hypothermiaSource: Study by housing expert Richard Moore
Forty years ago, few houses had central heating, and chilly hallways and spare rooms dragged the average temperature down. Radiators now warm rooms that previous generations wouldn't have heated - corridors, bedrooms, and bathrooms.

The last comprehensive set of measured home indoor temperatures is from 1996, when the English House Condition Survey found that although living room temperatures in winter remained relatively stable, the nation's hallways were getting warmer - up from 16.3C in 1986 to 17.9C.

"And for bedrooms, you'll be far more comfortable while you're asleep if it is about 14 or 15C," says Shipworth.

Dr Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the Royal Historic Palaces, agrees. "My grandmother wouldn't sleep in a heated bedroom, and would always have a window open. You can't imagine many people today feel the same."

In our enthusiasm for cosy homes, she says many of us are like the profligate Georgians.

Continue reading the main story “Start QuoteFair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold”
End Quote Sir Francis Bacon on 16th Century fashion for huge windows
"A warm living room showed you were a good host and a generous person. They thought an element of wastefulness showed you had enough cash to be generous," says Worsley, presenter of BBC Four's If Only Walls Could Talk, a history of our homes to be broadcast in April.

"In medieval times, heating your home was akin to burning money. There was a 16th Century saying, 'the game's not worth the candle' - a task was only worth doing if it justified the expense of illumination.

"But when people began to have more spare time and spare money, considerations of waste became less important."

With energy bills soaring in recent years, and more people aware of energy consumption, she expects frugality to be thrust upon us once more.

"I do think the future will be medieval, when the big bang comes and we run out of oil. Small windows, shutters on the outside, a chimney for natural ventilation."

Learning to operate a smart thermostat takes time
And expectations can be adjusted down as well as up. In Japan, there is a move away from super-cooling and over-heating office buildings. Government officials are encouraged to abandon jackets and ties in summer, and some local authorities have workers wrapped in blankets at their desks in winter.

"In 2005, Prime Minister Koizumi decreed that no government building should be heated above 20C or cooled below 28C," says Professor Michael Kelly of Cambridge University.

"That had quite an energy saving, but no drop-off in worker productivity. Compare that to London, where the expectation is that buildings will be within a few degrees of 22C year-round."

So will smart thermostats and radiator valves help, allowing homeowners to target heat where it's needed at different times in the day?

Experts say technology can do only half the job. A smart thermostat is only as smart as the person operating it.

證交稅挹注健保財源 財部反對

金管會和財政部官員的發言都在自打嘴巴！

金管會官員指出，不能因證交稅比較好課（投資人交易時就會立刻被課），財政有缺口就向證交稅拿錢，況且股票投資人不是每個人在證券市場交易都有賺到錢。

上班族指出，不能因薪資所得比較好課(上班族領薪水時就會立即被課)，財政有缺口就向上班族拿錢，況且上班族不是每個人的收入都足以支應生活開銷

對因二代健保要對證券交易稅及菸酒稅開徵「健保捐」，財政部至今都抱持保留態度。據瞭解，財政部主要是堅持，健保是保險，必須具備自償性，應與稅制分開處理，因此不管在任何稅目上附加健保捐，都違反租稅中性原則。

資本利得，如房屋交易所得、土地交易所得及證券交易所得，不是免稅就是稅率稅基超低，領薪水的反而要繳重稅，這樣不違反租稅中性原則？這位財政部官員這麼有租稅專業知識，願意挺身而出捍衛專業領域，怎麼不要求自己修法資本利得也要納入所得稅一併課稅？這位財政部官員怎麼不會對現行資本利得免稅或或輕稅的情況「持保留態度」？

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經濟日報╱記者陳美珍、李淑慧／台北報導】 2010.12.14 03:00 am


衛生署新健保方案規劃以加徵證交稅挹注健保財源，財政部及金管會昨（13）日同聲反對；財政部認為健保是保險，應與稅制分開處理；金管會官員直指，提高證交稅率是提高投資人交易成本，「後續影響怎樣，大家都知道」。

據悉，財政部認為，若僅在現有證交稅收內，提撥一定比率收入為健保財源，可能比直接提高稅率更可行。目前證交稅稅率千分之3，去年稅收約1059億元。

一般認為，財金部會反對提高證交稅，是擔心影響投資人交易意願，衝擊股市，這也讓衛生署有意以提高證交稅挹注財源的想法，恐不易實現。金融高層官員就指出，兩大財金部會同步反對，二代健保是否納入證交稅當作財源，恐怕還有很大的問題。

行政院和國民黨立委昨天就衛生署二代健保法草案新版本達成初步共識，但是否加徵證交稅千分之0.5來挹注健保財源，衛生署和財政部還在最後試算，尚未拍板定案。

金管會官員指出，不能因證交稅比較好課（投資人交易時就會立刻被課），財政有缺口就向證交稅拿錢，況且股票投資人不是每個人在證券市場交易都有賺到錢。

對因二代健保要對證券交易稅及菸酒稅開徵「健保捐」，財政部至今都抱持保留態度。據瞭解，財政部主要是堅持，健保是保險，必須具備自償性，應與稅制分開處理，因此不管在任何稅目上附加健保捐，都違反租稅中性原則。

財政部高層官員說，國民年金法已將未來營業稅加徵1%的空間，留做國民年金財源，已無可能再以營業稅做為健保財源挹注的對象。

由於現行證券交易稅率，實質已內含部分證券交易所得稅，財政部認為，股市要活絡，交易稅就不宜過重。若一定要從資本利得或證券交易稅收下手，「自證交稅收中提撥一定比率做為健保財源或許可行」。

【2010/12/14 經濟日報】@ http://udn.com/