OPINION
Your letters
for a sideways look at our fi eld, please feel free to publish. Otherwise fi le them in the usual place. Peter Hill MCIBSE Leicester
This month: Engineer’s spellchecker roulette, teacher awarded E-minus at parents’ evening and quantitative easing to replace Green Deal?
Lost for words The following is based on a real conversation at a parents’ evening, which left me lost for words. The progress of an eight-year-old schoolboy was discussed between the parents and teacher. Teacher: ‘Does Alex ever talk about what he would like to be when he grows up?’ Parent: ‘Alex wants to be an engineer.’ Teacher: ‘Well, at least you will have someone to mend your washing machine/car/computer when it breaks down.’ Parent: [Speechless] Can anybody suggest what the
parent should have said? Catherine Applegate
•CIBSE Journal will publish readers’ best suggestions here.
Easily misunderstood Over the last year or so I have noticed that some of our allegedly helpful technology can introduce unexpected twists into technical documentation. I have termed this ‘engineer’s
24 CIBSE Journal November 2012
spellchecker roulette’, and some of the images conjoured in my admittedly twisted imagination are enclosed. If you feel there is room in the Journal
Green Deal and the economic crisis Just a handful of economists questioned neoclassical economics during the boom, warning that banks creating money and the rise of private debt-to-income ratios would end in fi nancial crisis. Quantitative easing (QE) has done little for bank lending, and the coalition’s austerity measures mean there is little prospect for immediate economic growth, especially considering the high price of oil – which is not high enough to persuade oil companies to drill for ‘diffi cult oil’. Meanwhile building services engineers welcomed the Green Deal, but many question whether it can take off with such high interest rates? Government seems to have a policy dilemma. Tightening the effi ciency ratings of energy performance certifi cates (EPCs) through Council Tax or at letting, or sale, would promote the Green Deal, but could leave homeowners with more debt on the property than the current market value. For example, consider those Green Deal loans against lowly rated properties – they may have low improvement potential that does not meet future EPC thresholds. Some £375bn of QE has so far
gone into the UK fi nancial sector. UK private debt is saturated – lacking willing lenders and willing borrowers. Some economists call for public stimulus to head off a deeper fi nancial crisis. It’s radical. But it would get QE into a real economy suffering feedbacks from austerity. If the Green Deal fails, could its urgent objectives be publicly-funded at the much lower interest rates (1-2%) they see in Germany? Chris Jones
www.cibsejournal.com
WATCHARA / SHUTTERSTOCK
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