Farilo
2017-07-11 01:01:18
- #1
Hello Farilo,
I think it’s good that you want to think for yourself about whether a solution really makes sense. However, you lack basic physical knowledge to recognize whether you have thought correctly or not. I conclude this at least from many questions you have asked throughout the thread.
Hello Chand,
you are quite right there.
Basically and upfront: It is correct to inform yourself from multiple sources. However, you must be aware of the danger of "confirmation bias." You fall prey to this cognitive error when you weight sources that confirm your subjective feeling more strongly than those that offer you inconvenient information. Therefore, be especially careful if you find Mr. Fischer’s position "comprehensible" – maybe you would find it opposite if you knew more!
That "confirmation bias" thing is quite something. I know this "phenomenon" and do try to pay attention to it. I also have no problem changing my opinion today if someone explains something objectively and I then, with a lot of luck, understand it.
But even that is a constant struggle. I keep at it.
As far as Mr. Fischer is concerned, I don’t just believe everything he says. But I listen. And the things I think I have understood, I take as food for forming my opinion.
Just like many opinions here from the forum.
When Mr. Fischer then talks about climate change etc. or presents his very "unique" tables, that’s where I stop. (He definitely should work on the layout of some of his presentations).
A compelling counterargument is, for example, that he reinterprets his personal experience as a general condition: He works against faulty insulation -> he sees only the faulty ones -> he turns this into a fundamental problem. In reality, this concerns 0.x% of insulated objects, while professionally executed insulation keeps what it promises – namely in the remaining 99,...% of cases. Whoever adopts this view just because it confirms a (pre)judgment is precisely not thinking for themselves, so be careful!
I don’t want and won’t act as a lawyer for Mr. Fischer here. He should do that himself.
But what you described above is a trait we all show. We also learn from our personal experiences and then share them with others.
I don’t take it literally when he says ALL houses mold. At the same time, I don’t consider it total nonsense. At this moment, I simply have no conclusive opinion on that.
A field study, which will probably never take place, could provide help in this regard. Probably wishful thinking.
You should also reconsider your economic approach whether it all pays off in money terms. Just as an example: You might (I don’t know your property) create usable space by insulating the roof, where before there was only very limited usable space (hot in summer, cold in winter). In this case, you have created space that might have cost you more if you had bought it in this form than the insulation did. And this could already be seen as a gain, even if there is no short-term payback through pure heating costs. Depending on how you calculate it ... here, too, you have to be clear whether you want to include increases in value of your property (in pure monetary terms) and increases in utility value (from uninhabitable space to potential living or good storage space) or not.
I understand what you mean. I see it similarly. There are certain added values you cannot/should not simply calculate in cash.
I hope I could give you some "food for thought," you still seem to be in the process of education .
You have!
Thank you.
Finally, something about the subjectively perceived indoor climate by you. Here, too, I see the confirmation bias at work: With a skeptical attitude towards insulation, you visited houses, felt uncomfortable, and what was to blame? Logically, the insulation!
But your discomfort can have hundreds of other causes. Too bright, too dark, too much echo, too low, too high, wrong colors, not the feel-good materials, an unknown smell (nothing lies closer to our emotion center than the sense of smell!), no lake outside the window, unpleasant outside noises, etc. etc.
Especially in very old houses with the original windows, there is constant air exchange with the outside. This influences, for example, the smell and might also cause a feeling of moving air. Whoever finds this comfortable must still not forget: In winter, that means heating, heating, heating. And that does not only mean cost, but also constantly heating dry winter air from outside – inside it is then warm AND very dry. That for a few weeks and your eyes and mucous membranes show you what they think of the feel-good climate.
Well, that cannot be. Because I did not drive across the republic to almost every house-village despite initially having felt insulation was bad.
Especially with Viebrockhaus, from which you actually only hear good things, I had the stale air in every house. Really in every one!
And that, even though sometimes the door was open longer downstairs. (Or is that exactly the reason and I don’t understand a deeper physical reason for it?).
So, I definitely did not approach the matter with "bias." On the contrary. I wanted to and almost would have. Gritting my teeth.
Until I got lucky and suddenly completely different questions had to be clarified.
I simply have to write many things down in a notebook in the classic way. I can’t remember all these pieces of information/opinions etc. And searching everything in the forum every time is tedious.
Pen and notebook are ready
Regards