My upfromt cost is still higher, and the wall cannot be less than 1 brick thick so I cant use fewer bricks. Maybe I am a construction company and someone else gets the befits of better insulation, or maybe fuel costs went up, you have to isolate discussion to the item itself.
I hear you, and I am trying to grapple with this myself.
So the cost of bricks went up by X, and maybe the cost of electricity also went up by Y, and the labor costs are also higher by Z, but adding them all up, my costs are not up by X + Y + Z, but something less than that. Should that be part of CPI? Is that part of CPI? Is that part of something else? Very interesting in knowing an official economist take on this.
Can you achieve the same level of insulation for less, by using traditional insulating materials and techniques instead of insulating bricks?
Does the law mandate that your bricks have a certain R-Value?
How much heating and cooling is required in the climate where the building is located?
As usual there is no simple answer.
Bricks are OK as an analogy, but very poor as an example: as far as I'm aware modern bricks are no more insulating than old bricks, and neither are any good at the job. If there is a modern and insulating brick, then I don't think it's really caught on very much yet.
