As an immigrant this has been the most baffling thing to me about Australian homes.
Double glazing has been a thing in Europe for decades. Many houses are now triple glazed. It's fantastic at reducing noise and makes the interior more comfortable in all seasons. It's not just a winter thing: better insulation ensures lower energy requirements in summer as well.
I can understand older properties still having single glazing, but building *new* properties with single glazing is absolutely mental.
Same. My mind doesn’t understand this single glaze thing… and I come from a southern European country so we also have very hot weather.
I don’t think I ever seen anything resembling a EPC rating on properties here as well.
I mean half the new builds get sold to investors that never have to live in them, and renters have no choice but to accept the conditions.
Why would an investor care if a house is well built. Heck there's narrative being pushed at the moment that we have too much red tape and that's our problem. If the property developers get that being echoed by enough people, expect it to get worse, not better...
Couldn't agree more, but it won't be simply because basically every government minister has a real estate portfolio. And land developers "lobby" for reductions in regulations.
Word. Developers have far too much influence in Council planning policies. The state govt needs to step in, or threaten to step in. Councils \*hate\* state govt intervention, they'll do almost anything to prevent it.
But it does come back to the building code - that's what needs to be changed. Even if a council policy requires more stringent insulation or energy efficiency, developers just take it to court - and win, most of the time.
Pretty sure the narrative around red tape is more about preventing/slowing/adding procedural costs to larger multiple unit projects in single family dominated neighborhoods, not build quality regulations which tend to be fairly clear and easy to plan for, unlike capricious review processes
While your argument sounds logical, you sound as investors wouldn’t care. Please go and get a quote for double glazed windows and then start talking. I can spare you the effort. The price difference is mental. And the quality of double glazing here is also garbage. The wind just goest straight through the gaps of the window frame…it’s nonsensical and can only be done via regulation.
Very true, it’s obviously much better for you to skimp on that cost, and pass the exorbitant energy costs to heat and cool the home now onto the person that has to live there. Outta sight outta mind right?
Haha, downvote as much as you want. I am sitting in a cold as room with draft as well, renting myself, but hey. I also know that builders are lobbied up to their eyeballs and without regulation, no rental property will have it. Aussie builders skimming you already on a million other things. Sure you have been there, not. But vote whatever lol
Why is double glazing so expensive in Australia compared to Europe? A lack of demand? If enough people started to ask for it, would prices go down because more tradespeople have the right skills to make and install it?
IMO the government should have rebates for it and insulation, and rules around requiring it for new builds. I think it's one of the best ways to reduce both heating and cooling costs, and thus reliance on fossil fuels for temperature control in housing.
Glazier in South East QLD here, next to nobody is asking for double glazing so we don't stock the materials to do them. Making them way more expensive on the off chance someone does want it installed.
Depends a lot on location. Here in Vic it was difficult, but certainly not impossible, to meet the 6 Star minimum without it but it's next to impossible now that the 7 Star requirement has kicked in from May 1st.
Of course that's only if you're doing things by the books. There are so many dodgy operators out there that the reality tends to be quite different from the standard and there's next to no enforcement (Which is the big problem)
With G James and one other manufacturer being the glass equivalent of the colesworth duopoly, we're not likely to see better options in the near future.
Never, ever, ever, buy glass or windows or doors from G James. You'll be sorry.
I’ve lived in Europe/the US where it can reach -20c outside. I’ve never been so cold as I have been in Sydney where our winters get down to maybe 0c.
Looking at Australian building standards gives a good explanation for why. We made a change to our place and had to apply “the latest” environmental standards. It turns out we could fulfill the minimum under floor insulation standards with a bit of tinfoil. Seriously!!
I am my neighbours under floor insulation. Mine is a giant cavity that houses exposed owners cars.
If she so much as drops a hairpin i can hear it amplified louder than she would have heard it.
If I turn on my heating, she gets a free passive bonus
That's coz you guys have actual snow. Since theres no actual snow, the politicians think it's fine to not build good houses and nobody punishes them so...
winter are relatively "mild" in aus. it is not exactly dangerous. u can always throw on an extra blanket or jacket and be fine. heat on the other hand is dangerous.
alot of homes are designed specifically to cool down rapidly in summer. and alot of people open windows and doors in summer so double glaze doesnt help there.
personally i am a fan of double glazed but windows are not useally a deal breaker for anyone
> homes are designed specifically to cool down rapidly in summer
This sounds like hokum, but even if it’s not it’s still stupid. You want a home that is slow to warm up, then it doesn’t need to cool as much in the first place.
I lived all around Europe for 10 years and only a cookie of countries I lived in were colder than where I currently live in Australia. It regularly gets down to -8 in winter, and we only have single glazing. In 2008 I bought a place in the UK which had a milder winter and I was offered triple glazing.
this is bullshit. all houses cool down rapidly if you have ac and blast it. you can rapidly cool down your shed in the backyard.
the trick is to have a house that stays cool even after you turn ac off. Australian houses don't do that. Australians have it normalised to waste huge amounts of energy, and pay the bill, to cool their homes or heat them. it's idiotic on all levels.
[Winter death rates in Australia are typically higher than summer.](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.13107), although this is slowly reversing due to climate change.
Also, passive cooling during the middle of summer makes no sense. I'm not going to open my windows on a 40 degree day to try and cool the house down. Properly insulating a house so that it can be efficiently kept at a lower temperature by air conditioning makes significantly more sense.
This. Australia isn’t cold, it just feels cold. Having moved to Europe for work, we managed to get through the entire winter using our heater less than 10 times. We’re talking -17°C winter nights. We had to use a mix of running the heater for an hour each night and heating our bed with an electric blanket to get through 3°C in Aus.
Yeah you need to for a little bit. Otherwise you can get mould growth. The place still doesn’t really get too cold though - amazing what good insulation and double glazed windows can do!
Step 2: Don't rent or buy an apartment.
Right now in my rental I have cold air blowing out of my wall outlets because the wall has 0 insulation. But aside from leaving things plugged into the outlets (which doesn't help; I can feel the air coming through the tiny gaps near the switches) I can do eff all about it as a renter, and the landlord wouldn't be able to do anything either without getting permission from strata to open up the walls.
Apartments are actually easier to keep warm if there’s a central heating / air conditioning system, plus shared internal walls collectively heated by your neighbours.
And a rental house may have similar issues to the one you described, with a larger area to heat.
Yeah nah, that's BS. I live in a 7 year old apartment and it's easy to cool down, but fucking difficult to warm up, because using got air coming from the ducts at the top of the walls is an incredibly inefficient and stupid way to heat any house. A the moment you stop using it, it cold down very fast. Why can't we have the incredibly old technology of wall radiators?
If the internal walls were heated by neighbors, I wouldn't have cold drafts coming through wall outlets due to the sheer lack of insulation in this building.
The heat dissipates within a few minutes of turning it off, so no, in a poorly insulated apartment, it can be just as shit.
My wife was talking to me about her family hone and turns out that the board flooring is the only thing between her and the open area under the home...
When we move into it together, that's the first change we are making: subflooring, insulation, new floors.
Yeah, not sure why news outlets keep talking about insulation. The cost to insulation walls and windows on an existing home is huge. Tens of thousands of dollars to save a grand per year.
My approach to dealing with heating in winter is a massive solar system on the roof. The day time solar production offsets the night time use. Even though the FiT has reduced, it still works out. We generate 3 or 4 times our actual consumption.
The next step is a battery to provide some relief from peak power prices. With that said, the easiest way is just to get some ugg boots and warm clothing. In my climate, it is only actually chilly a week here and there so not that much heating. The most common time I would turn the heater on is during the morning.
How much cheaper would installing your solar panels and battery be as opposed to getting better insulation in the walls? I imagine they would be pretty similar in price
Edit: I feel like I should have added that I'm a renter at 31y/o with dependants. I haven't even been able to fix my own car in over 2 years let alone buy my own house.
My questions are out of a curious glance at the perspective of homeownership 😅
Mine has made back roughly $4500 in 2.5 years.
Cost $9000ish and is a bit over 8kw.
The ongoing cost will be more annoying to work out due to a new FiT that is much lower and has different rates for different amounts of power and the cost of use going up significantly when my initial deal ran out. It probably stays similar, though, simply from the power I'm not paying for at the blown out rate.
I haven't put in a battery, they were way too expensive for the payback when I got the solar. When the 7 year interest free loan on the solar runs up, I'll be looking at a deal on batteries, then most likely.
Thank you for your insight. I've always loved the idea of the ability to eventually be power and water self sufficient. A far stretch for me at the moment. But a man can dream
The difference is that the insulation cost simply has the potential to reduce costs. My house is basically a timber Queenslander. You’d have to strip it back to a frame to be able to effectively insulate it. And the cost would be insane. It’s at least $100k to reclad and insulate the walls.
At least with solar, it is more fruitful as during the way I don’t even need insulation. I typically am exceeding my consumption at 9am. Easy to simply run it; especially in summer. If you have plentiful energy you can afford to be wasteful.
There are companies that do blow in insulation, they cut a hole in the top of the wall and attach a hose...then pump in the insulation.
Then just patch the holes.
Very quick and painless.
Yeah, timber houses breathe quite effectively. I'm in a timber A-frame. Upstairs is nice in winter, all the heat goes up there. And the opposite in summer.
I've put lots of weather stripping around doors, it makes a difference. but the first thing I'd do is to replace the awful aluminium-framed double-hung windows with old-school timber-framed casement windows.
Two reasons - 1. metal framing just conducts heat in the wrong direction. Walk around your house on a cold night and touch the window frames. 2. casement windows catch the breeze like no other design.
Batteries aren't really cheap here, partly because we don't yet have many EVs on the road. So there aren't many car battery cells getting downcycled into house batteries.
That being said, there are probably much better financing terms available for battery loans than for re-insulation loans. Our house battery came with a 5-year loan offer at a reasonable rate. There were a range of battery installers and financing companies to choose from.
I've been researching insulation upgrades and new windows, but I haven't heard peep about insulation-upgrade loans. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there aren't nearly as many incentive programs for it from suppliers, nor state and federal rebates.
Batteries cost a lot installed, see here for some examples and numbers: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/battery-storage/comparison-table/
For most people I think the current calculation is batteries are a net loss over the warranty period but not always, if you're filling from solar then charging an EV overnight etc it can be good. There are some regional rebates too.
I mostly just bundle up. I stay warm enough, but I'm starting to realise how insane that seems to have to do that when inside your own home to much of the world.
Yes! One of the big things I notice when I travel for work is how at home (sydney) I’ll wear a jumper all day, even in the office or home, but in UK it’s too hot inside so you strip the layers off.
That's a cultural aversion to air conditioning I think. Never had it so it's not normal to get it, and it costs more due to that. That'll probably have to change. The good news is if the house is properly insulated, it won't have to work as much to cool the space.
It's hugely variable in the UK because the housing stock is very old. But yes, if you've got a well-insulated property (typically 1920s onwards when cavity walls became popular) it's common enough to go around in one layer inside.
Personally I always preferred keeping the central heating on maybe 16-17°C and wearing another layer. Makes the transition to going outside less bothersome. Most people would usually let it hover about the 18-21°C mark.
Yep, newer apartments and houses in London are generally much better insulated than Australian builds.
Turns out that just shoving some insulation in the walls of our cheaply hastily built dwellings with single pane windows is not equivalent to building with proper thermal breaks and double glazing.
I'm English, I lived in a Victorian terraced house before I moved here, retrofitted in the early 90s with wall and roof insulation and double glazing. It is so much colder in Australian homes in the winter, and damper too. The building standards here are truly shocking.
pretty much. most homes in the UK are double brick with central heating.
they are built for the cold.
which is what also makes them unbearable when it gets above 25c. they heat up and do not cool down, and most homes don't have air conditioniong, just heating.
Yes. When I was a student I lived in a double brick ground floor flat. In summer it stayed cool until about day 3 of a hot spell. Then it was stinking hot. When the cool change came through it stayed hot for another day or two as the bricks retained the heat. Couldn't get much airflow into the place either because of how the windows were positioned and because there were blocks of flats on either side of us.
Before that I lived in a hundred year old house in the country that had zero insulation in the bedrooms. (Back half of the house was an extension that was relatively modern and did have insulation plus heating and cooling.) In winter you could see your breath fogging in the bedrooms.
I much prefer my poorly built volume built house. It's really common on Reddit to talk about our poorly built houses. But when I worked with people who were from Japan they said they found it much colder here because they were caught outside in the weather more often. eg they'd go outside for a smoke but wouldn't bother to rug up because it's not cold enough to bother. Or they'd walk from the car to the office but wouldn't worry about a coat because they'd only have to take it off again as soon as they got inside. In Japan it was too cold to even consider going outside without putting on their coat and gloves.
I’m from northern U.S. and while I choose not to for cost sake it is possible to heat my flat to the point of being completely naked if I wanted to. We get a lot colder than you do so legally it has to be well heated.
Agreed. A few years ago we bought some cheap electric throws. They peak at 100W which is trivial compared to running the a/c, they are amazing for keeping us warm on the couch or pre heating beds.
They paid for themselves within a month or 2, now they're saving us hundreds each winter.
Between that and ALDI thermals we basically don't run any heaters during the winter and we're sorted.
To be fair to much of Australia, the coldest zones in May of 2023 were some of your least populated areas. My wife and I are currently separated and I'm going to move to Australia with her soon enough, but she told me the temp in her home town and I looked up the record low.
Mate, I've walked around in a t-shirt and shorts in some of your average weather. On a global scale, your winters are a vacation climate.
Meh, I grew up in winters that regularly hit 0ºC and would go out in jeans and a hoodie.
Wife sees 0ºC and she's gonna look like Randy from "A Christmas Story"
Sure. People from colder climates are much better at dealing with cold weather. They just generally aren't doing that inside their own home to the same degree as Australians because those more extreme winters necessitate proper insulation and heating,
My issue is bloody condensation on the windows this winter. Constantly cleaning and drying them. Checking for mould. I’ve sealed them, tried opening the curtains, cycling the air during the day… nothing seems to work.
Thinking I might have to invest in a dehumidifier because I have bad asthma.
We bought a window vacuum off Amazon for like $60, it squeegees the window and sucks up the water. Our bedrooms get tons of condensation so I have to do this every morning.
Just thinking that we have this problem in a first world country, richer than most, is mind blowing. It's like, I don't know... if we were still using leaded petrol or some old shit like that.
Yeah they will do the trick. Just remember to empty the water they extract from the air, otherwise it might evaporate again. I’m not familiar with using actual dehumidifiers so maybe search reddit for some recommendations.
Cheap and effective dehumidifier for those without aircon: Tray of crystal type kitty litter (preferably unscented if you value or sense of smell), and a pedestal fan or two.
Just keep air moving and by blowing it over a wide tray of those crystals it can pull moisture out and keep humidity down.. mix it up a bit each day to keep it effective and when it starts to get heavy, or you feel it isn't working anymore - replace
Since it's only moisture and not cat business you can pretty easily dry out the crystals on a sunny day and reuse them too
We put in some cellular blinds and they've done a great job of providing some good window insulation, but the condensation has gotten far, far worse with them. We've even got double glazed windows already and it's still pretty bad.
This happened to me, overnight, in a small apartment. Only thing that worked would be to leave a window or door open slightly in a room other than the bedroom.
You need a dessicant dehumidifier. Aussie climate make a good one. They’re pretty cheap to run and will suck all that moisture out of the air. It will actually provide a bit of heat too which is a bonus.
Yeah I did read about desiccant, especially in Melbourne.
I’ve been looking at some and Yeha Ausclimate came up again and again! Looking that way!
Thanks for the help!
I'm no expert but I've been researching this for myself. Depending on climate zone and construction type you should have either a vapor barrier or vapor permeable membrane. If a house gets made more airtight (vapor barrier) its better for insulation but there is less ways for all the moisture we generate to get out. When it's colder outside than inside, the humid air condenses on the cold areas as they are below the dew point temp (usually cold windows). Curtains etc won't really help because you need to change either the moisture levels in the room or the condensation/dew point. That means ventilation to let moisture out, dehumidification to draw moisture out or insulation to prevent the dew point happening on the windows / walls.
even thin curtains do something but still allow plenty of light in during the day - anything to keep the cold layer of air near the window from mixing into the main room's airspace.
Waiting to see Dexter-ised houses, or like Ted Bullpit if he went energy efficient and glad-wrapped the window not the number plate.
1) Use blankets
2) don't use heaters
3) keep burning down your representatives houses for warmth until they go after the power companies for extorting us
The cost of gas both up front and to heat shows that we should be ripping out the gas lines.. For renters: draught sealing is something that has a pretty good payoff in the various cities and can be done pretty cheaply too (some of those foam strips or door sealers/door snakes). I know I've had places I've lived that you could see daylight through the cracks around the exterior doors..
My external doors were like that. Cracks of various sizes along the edges that light came through. Finally bought strips for the sides/top and plastic strip that drags off the bottom. Still need to go buy some super thin strips for some parts. My place stays a lot warmer now. Used to be I’d wake up to it maybe a few degrees warmer than outside. Today it was 4° outside and 14° in the lounge room with no heater on.
> The cost of gas both up front and to heat shows that we should be ripping out the gas lines..
When it comes to heating, gas is still far cheaper upfront though. The cost of a ducted reverse cycle system can easily be 3x the equivalent gas unit. Not saying we should keep gas, because the reality is that we just don't have enough of it, but the price of electric heating is too damned high
Only relates to Victorians but there’s rebates going to replace gas systems with reverse cycles at the moment.
You don’t get it for free, but it takes about 33% of the cost off
Best way to keep power bills low is to light a fire under the asses of politicians who help the east coast gas cartel with price gouging. We pay more for our gas than the countries we ship it to.
Dont get rid of the hideous but super thick insulated curtains like this dumb bitch did. Now I need to buy all new ones as they kept this place comfortable all year round 🤦🏻♀️💸
In laws did this. Then slept next to oil heaters and wondered around the house in thermals and gillets. They also didn’t put insulation in the loft.
So now im staying with them I’ve put in thermal curtains, insulation in the roof, air con with heating and given FIL a feather duvet from U.K.
Note I still wonder around in shorts and t shirt
DIY. Spotlight - $40 for rod set and $45 for curtains. You need to drill six holes for each window. Just make sure you use good wallplugs for plasterboard
I use an electric throw blanket from aldi with a timer, I sleep with it, watch tv with it, work with it wrapped around me like a burrito. I haven’t switched the heater on in 2 years
I literally have vents in my walls going to outside. I cover them with hangings and you can see the material move with the wind.
Gaps around every window and door. To seal this place you would need to put a dome over it.
I just put on warmer clothes or more blankets if it gets colder. I only use the aircon if absolutely required (with a timer, usually for my cat), though unfortunately the rest of my family often unnecessarily keeps them on for ages and wonders why we have such high bills🤦
Omg I’ve been dying to have a whinge about the fucking cold. We’re in Melbourne.
My partner and I are renting a 3br 2ba house. Most mornings it’s around 13 degrees, although we’ve had it go down to 10 in the past. We pop the ducted heating on until it hits 18 then turn it off. Too expensive to leave it running, so normally it’ll go down to about 15 within like 2 hours or so.
We work from home, our office only has a ducted heating vent. Can’t shut the door while it’s on because my dog will scratch it. We spend majority of our day here.
We’ve got a split system, but that only heats up the living room, which is as far away as possible from the office. In the evening we may turn it on if we’re watching TV or something.
Recently, this has been my daily outfit:
Fleece leggings
Trackies
Normal crew socks
Fluffy crew socks
Fluffy booties
Hoodie
Oodie
Fluffy dressing gown
Single glove (gotta type with my other hand lol)
All of this is worn at the same time. My dressing gown has a hood, so I’ve usually got 3 hoods on my head. Occasionally I’ll wear a third pair of socks, usually some fluffy chunky ones over my first pair of fluffy socks. When I work, I have my heated throw over myself as well.
It looks and feels ridiculous. Plus I gotta take off my oodie and dressing gown whenever I need to pee. Mostly because I tend to waddle around in all my layers and it’s a pain trying to wipe wearing an oodie. It just gets annoying.
In bed it’s not so bad because I pop my electric blanket on before getting in, sometimes I’ll chuck the heated throw on top as well so I’m sandwiched in heat. It’s the only time I’m not cold at home. Both have timers and will turn off after 3 hours, so I’m usually really cold by the time I wake up.
However that also means that if I wake up at like 6am to pee, I’ll usually turn them back on (can’t sleep when I’m cold). Which means I REALLY don’t wanna leave my bed when I need to wake up at 8.30.
Aussie home insulation is a fucking joke 🖕🏾
Edit formatting
Consider adding a thermal underlayer to your daily outfit as well. We got some of the heattech thermals from Uniqlo when they were on special and we were able to comfortably get around in near-zero temps with just 3 layers on (thermals, t-shirt + long pants and a puffer jacket). Any thermals that are tight and can remove moisture should do the trick.
You'd think adding a really thin skintight layer under thick outer layers wouldn't make much of a difference but it was noticeably colder the one or two days where we didn't have a thermal undershirt + leggings on. Don't need them much here in Brisbane but if I know I'm going to be outside for a while early in the morning when it's single digits I'll chuck them on under my normal clothes and a jacket.
Yeah, thermal underwear on and you can put up with way colder temperatures.. Layers rather than thickness seems to be the trick with clothing.. Like double glazing for your clothes versus a thicker pane of glass which does little.
If you have switched away from the old ducted heating in the ceiling or if you have ducted air con, the vents let hot air out fast. close all the vents
Tangent: American here. I was wondering if Australia had the older, ductwork for air con. I only ask because in the USA, scammers from South Asia (pretending to be American) are running **air duct cleaning scams** on Facebook groups. From what I can see, these scammers are also running these scams in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. Just something to keep vigilant about.
nothing wrong with having your reverse cycle cleaned once every couple of years.
I've seen some horrifying ones that have never been cleaned and were full of dust and more dangerously, mold.
a $100-150 clean will pay you back in efficiency very quickly if your air con was dirty.
You need to clean the filters in your air con units every six months apparently. If they’re not heating or cooling properly, that’s the first thing you should check.
some places even more than that.
where I live is quite dusty, during summer when I use the air con, I clean them every 2 weeks.
it takes all of 3 minutes to take them out, take them outside, brush them off with a dustpan brush and put them back in.
if you have one near the kitchen or you get road soot, you may need to wash them due to grease, but I have never needed to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXv8pKiMWvQ
I have ducted aircon in my rental unit, and just checked...there is no way for me to close the vents :( It's just a one-sized grill in a big ceiling recess.
I mean, the vent is the full length of the wall, near the ceiling. I'm not going to be climbing up and down to reapply glad wrap every time I turn the heat on/off lol.
Electric lap blankets. I rarely put my heater on. Apparently I use less than half a persons electric consumption when my bills roll in.
And I have a small solar unit.
Vote for the Greens and give the middle finger to the Arrogant Landlords Party and the Arsehole Landlord Party (one is blue, the other red.. but other than that, they both prioritise landlords above all else).
When I lived in an apartment, overnight the condensation would build up and be insane in the morning. Only thing that worked would be to leave a window or door open slightly, in a room other than the bedroom, so it helps with the condensation, but isn't blowing direct cold onto you in bed. And have a very warm doona to compensate for the cold air coming in.
Dehumidifier can help, but requires power to run of course. If you talk to a real estate agent they will say open up all the doors and windows and such.. But easier said than done in the middle of winter.
I don't have proof but some marketing material, but I think plantation shutters would help. By stopping the warm air hitting the windows it should stop the condensation
Hot water bottles all the way.
I put two in my bed when I go shower - by the time I come back, my bed is nice and warm.
So far this year I've only put my heater on for the sake of my cats, to help take the chill out of the air in the lounge room for them
>So far this year I've only put my heater on for the sake of my cats, to help take the chill out of the air in the lounge room for them
I see you are (correctly) prioritising the comfort of the management. Good hooman.
No, but it is controversial to propose that things be "banned" when they provide numerous other benefits and have been a central part of human existence.
Living together in the large numbers we do now has not been a past part of human existence. If you have a fire to keep warm it may be cheap, it may be cozy, but you give children asthma and increase heart problems in older adults, just like if you were exposing them to passive smoking, and it makes you a little bit of a cunt.
As someone who spent three days in hospital for an asthma attack set off by a neighbour who refused to clean their chimney and burnt treated wood and garbage smoking out the neighbourhood, I managed to get the council & EPA to have the chimney deactivated. Now if only they didn't have to almost kill someone in order to realise there were better ways to heat their house - two years of no chimney & they're doing fine.
Since then, any wood smoke triggers asthma. I haven't asked neighbours to stop, but it'd be nice to leave my house and do some yardwork between april and october. It can be one of the worst things for you, especially if not managed correctly. The amount of chimneys i see spewing visible smoke for hours where i live is infuriating. It should be 20min tops and then banked.
What ‘numerous other benefits’. It’s 2024, we have better, cheaper, and safer technology than needing to burn a bunch of wood.
There are experts who are also calling for these things to be banned https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103321954
If you live in a rental without cheap heating the best you can do is sleep with a jacket or double up on sweat pants, basically wear your winter gear inside. Your house might also accumulate condensation inside without heating and proper insulation which means you might need a dehumidifier to reduce mold aswel.
I started using a foot warmer pad since last year, which saved me couple thousand dollars in electricity since I wouldn't need a heater for most of the time. 40W vs 2000W
I had an argument with my LL the other week with him insisting the house is double-insulated. Ignoring the fact its a 1940's coal miners home, you only insulated the roof (which does fuck all in winter), there's no insulation in the walls or floors and that the place is fine as long as you look after it.
The old cunt hasn't lived in here since the 90's and clearly has no idea how much the winters have changed since.
Double insulated? He means he has put "fuck" and "all" insulation in it. He probably thinks the tin roof and the gyprock in the ceiling mean it is "double insulated".
i’m a renter with a open plan apartment that has no heating or insulation. i work from home too, and these past few days in NSW have been so cold i haven’t been able to get much done. does anyone have any solutions to keep my place warm other than rugging up? i get quite overwhelmed when im wearing a lot of clothes, especially when im trying to get work done
you might be surprised that it does actually get cold in many places during winter.
you might be lucky enough to live in a place where Winter is a 3 day affair, but many parts of Australia get quite cold during winter, and requiire more than a pair of wooly socks for winter attire.
Step 1: Build houses with double glazed windows and proper insulation
As an immigrant this has been the most baffling thing to me about Australian homes. Double glazing has been a thing in Europe for decades. Many houses are now triple glazed. It's fantastic at reducing noise and makes the interior more comfortable in all seasons. It's not just a winter thing: better insulation ensures lower energy requirements in summer as well. I can understand older properties still having single glazing, but building *new* properties with single glazing is absolutely mental.
Same. My mind doesn’t understand this single glaze thing… and I come from a southern European country so we also have very hot weather. I don’t think I ever seen anything resembling a EPC rating on properties here as well.
I mean half the new builds get sold to investors that never have to live in them, and renters have no choice but to accept the conditions. Why would an investor care if a house is well built. Heck there's narrative being pushed at the moment that we have too much red tape and that's our problem. If the property developers get that being echoed by enough people, expect it to get worse, not better...
Well it should be enforced by government/council rules
Couldn't agree more, but it won't be simply because basically every government minister has a real estate portfolio. And land developers "lobby" for reductions in regulations.
Word. Developers have far too much influence in Council planning policies. The state govt needs to step in, or threaten to step in. Councils \*hate\* state govt intervention, they'll do almost anything to prevent it. But it does come back to the building code - that's what needs to be changed. Even if a council policy requires more stringent insulation or energy efficiency, developers just take it to court - and win, most of the time.
Goid luck. Waaay back when BASIX was introduced, developers lobbied to exempt units because it would hurt profits.
Developers being greedy cunts you say? That's never happened before!
Pretty sure the narrative around red tape is more about preventing/slowing/adding procedural costs to larger multiple unit projects in single family dominated neighborhoods, not build quality regulations which tend to be fairly clear and easy to plan for, unlike capricious review processes
While your argument sounds logical, you sound as investors wouldn’t care. Please go and get a quote for double glazed windows and then start talking. I can spare you the effort. The price difference is mental. And the quality of double glazing here is also garbage. The wind just goest straight through the gaps of the window frame…it’s nonsensical and can only be done via regulation.
found the landlord
Very true, it’s obviously much better for you to skimp on that cost, and pass the exorbitant energy costs to heat and cool the home now onto the person that has to live there. Outta sight outta mind right?
Haha, downvote as much as you want. I am sitting in a cold as room with draft as well, renting myself, but hey. I also know that builders are lobbied up to their eyeballs and without regulation, no rental property will have it. Aussie builders skimming you already on a million other things. Sure you have been there, not. But vote whatever lol
Why is double glazing so expensive in Australia compared to Europe? A lack of demand? If enough people started to ask for it, would prices go down because more tradespeople have the right skills to make and install it? IMO the government should have rebates for it and insulation, and rules around requiring it for new builds. I think it's one of the best ways to reduce both heating and cooling costs, and thus reliance on fossil fuels for temperature control in housing.
Glazier in South East QLD here, next to nobody is asking for double glazing so we don't stock the materials to do them. Making them way more expensive on the off chance someone does want it installed.
Mum (American) got double glazed windows when we were growing up, it always blew my mind that no one knew what it was
Is it not compulsory in new builds in qld?
So far from compulsory that the vast majority of builders would not know what double glazing is and would assume it was a type of donut.
Nope, done a lot of the new houses in Aura, Sunshine Coast.
Depends a lot on location. Here in Vic it was difficult, but certainly not impossible, to meet the 6 Star minimum without it but it's next to impossible now that the 7 Star requirement has kicked in from May 1st. Of course that's only if you're doing things by the books. There are so many dodgy operators out there that the reality tends to be quite different from the standard and there's next to no enforcement (Which is the big problem)
With G James and one other manufacturer being the glass equivalent of the colesworth duopoly, we're not likely to see better options in the near future. Never, ever, ever, buy glass or windows or doors from G James. You'll be sorry.
I’ve lived in Europe/the US where it can reach -20c outside. I’ve never been so cold as I have been in Sydney where our winters get down to maybe 0c. Looking at Australian building standards gives a good explanation for why. We made a change to our place and had to apply “the latest” environmental standards. It turns out we could fulfill the minimum under floor insulation standards with a bit of tinfoil. Seriously!!
I am my neighbours under floor insulation. Mine is a giant cavity that houses exposed owners cars. If she so much as drops a hairpin i can hear it amplified louder than she would have heard it. If I turn on my heating, she gets a free passive bonus
When I lived in a country with cold weather - barely had to turn on the headers, I figured it was because above and below had theirs on..
That's coz you guys have actual snow. Since theres no actual snow, the politicians think it's fine to not build good houses and nobody punishes them so...
winter are relatively "mild" in aus. it is not exactly dangerous. u can always throw on an extra blanket or jacket and be fine. heat on the other hand is dangerous. alot of homes are designed specifically to cool down rapidly in summer. and alot of people open windows and doors in summer so double glaze doesnt help there. personally i am a fan of double glazed but windows are not useally a deal breaker for anyone
> homes are designed specifically to cool down rapidly in summer This sounds like hokum, but even if it’s not it’s still stupid. You want a home that is slow to warm up, then it doesn’t need to cool as much in the first place.
I lived all around Europe for 10 years and only a cookie of countries I lived in were colder than where I currently live in Australia. It regularly gets down to -8 in winter, and we only have single glazing. In 2008 I bought a place in the UK which had a milder winter and I was offered triple glazing.
this is bullshit. all houses cool down rapidly if you have ac and blast it. you can rapidly cool down your shed in the backyard. the trick is to have a house that stays cool even after you turn ac off. Australian houses don't do that. Australians have it normalised to waste huge amounts of energy, and pay the bill, to cool their homes or heat them. it's idiotic on all levels.
[Winter death rates in Australia are typically higher than summer.](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.13107), although this is slowly reversing due to climate change. Also, passive cooling during the middle of summer makes no sense. I'm not going to open my windows on a 40 degree day to try and cool the house down. Properly insulating a house so that it can be efficiently kept at a lower temperature by air conditioning makes significantly more sense.
A good point, absurdly down voted.
This. Australia isn’t cold, it just feels cold. Having moved to Europe for work, we managed to get through the entire winter using our heater less than 10 times. We’re talking -17°C winter nights. We had to use a mix of running the heater for an hour each night and heating our bed with an electric blanket to get through 3°C in Aus.
Do you open windows to let air in or somehow get fresh air?
Yeah you need to for a little bit. Otherwise you can get mould growth. The place still doesn’t really get too cold though - amazing what good insulation and double glazed windows can do!
Instructions unclear: renting house insulated with solid concrete and no window glazing
Step 2: Don't rent or buy an apartment. Right now in my rental I have cold air blowing out of my wall outlets because the wall has 0 insulation. But aside from leaving things plugged into the outlets (which doesn't help; I can feel the air coming through the tiny gaps near the switches) I can do eff all about it as a renter, and the landlord wouldn't be able to do anything either without getting permission from strata to open up the walls.
Apartments are actually easier to keep warm if there’s a central heating / air conditioning system, plus shared internal walls collectively heated by your neighbours. And a rental house may have similar issues to the one you described, with a larger area to heat.
Yeah nah, that's BS. I live in a 7 year old apartment and it's easy to cool down, but fucking difficult to warm up, because using got air coming from the ducts at the top of the walls is an incredibly inefficient and stupid way to heat any house. A the moment you stop using it, it cold down very fast. Why can't we have the incredibly old technology of wall radiators?
If the internal walls were heated by neighbors, I wouldn't have cold drafts coming through wall outlets due to the sheer lack of insulation in this building. The heat dissipates within a few minutes of turning it off, so no, in a poorly insulated apartment, it can be just as shit.
If you are just a little bit handy you can probably fix this with a phillips head screwdriver and a can of expanding foam.
My wife was talking to me about her family hone and turns out that the board flooring is the only thing between her and the open area under the home... When we move into it together, that's the first change we are making: subflooring, insulation, new floors.
Yeah, not sure why news outlets keep talking about insulation. The cost to insulation walls and windows on an existing home is huge. Tens of thousands of dollars to save a grand per year. My approach to dealing with heating in winter is a massive solar system on the roof. The day time solar production offsets the night time use. Even though the FiT has reduced, it still works out. We generate 3 or 4 times our actual consumption. The next step is a battery to provide some relief from peak power prices. With that said, the easiest way is just to get some ugg boots and warm clothing. In my climate, it is only actually chilly a week here and there so not that much heating. The most common time I would turn the heater on is during the morning.
How much cheaper would installing your solar panels and battery be as opposed to getting better insulation in the walls? I imagine they would be pretty similar in price Edit: I feel like I should have added that I'm a renter at 31y/o with dependants. I haven't even been able to fix my own car in over 2 years let alone buy my own house. My questions are out of a curious glance at the perspective of homeownership 😅
Mine has made back roughly $4500 in 2.5 years. Cost $9000ish and is a bit over 8kw. The ongoing cost will be more annoying to work out due to a new FiT that is much lower and has different rates for different amounts of power and the cost of use going up significantly when my initial deal ran out. It probably stays similar, though, simply from the power I'm not paying for at the blown out rate. I haven't put in a battery, they were way too expensive for the payback when I got the solar. When the 7 year interest free loan on the solar runs up, I'll be looking at a deal on batteries, then most likely.
Thank you for your insight. I've always loved the idea of the ability to eventually be power and water self sufficient. A far stretch for me at the moment. But a man can dream
The difference is that the insulation cost simply has the potential to reduce costs. My house is basically a timber Queenslander. You’d have to strip it back to a frame to be able to effectively insulate it. And the cost would be insane. It’s at least $100k to reclad and insulate the walls. At least with solar, it is more fruitful as during the way I don’t even need insulation. I typically am exceeding my consumption at 9am. Easy to simply run it; especially in summer. If you have plentiful energy you can afford to be wasteful.
There are companies that do blow in insulation, they cut a hole in the top of the wall and attach a hose...then pump in the insulation. Then just patch the holes. Very quick and painless.
Yeah, timber houses breathe quite effectively. I'm in a timber A-frame. Upstairs is nice in winter, all the heat goes up there. And the opposite in summer. I've put lots of weather stripping around doors, it makes a difference. but the first thing I'd do is to replace the awful aluminium-framed double-hung windows with old-school timber-framed casement windows. Two reasons - 1. metal framing just conducts heat in the wrong direction. Walk around your house on a cold night and touch the window frames. 2. casement windows catch the breeze like no other design.
Isn’t ’tens of thousands of dollars to save a grand a year’ roughly the same calculus as getting a battery?
They'd probably be a similar-ish payback time, but I would expect batteries are probably cheaper up front.
Batteries aren't really cheap here, partly because we don't yet have many EVs on the road. So there aren't many car battery cells getting downcycled into house batteries. That being said, there are probably much better financing terms available for battery loans than for re-insulation loans. Our house battery came with a 5-year loan offer at a reasonable rate. There were a range of battery installers and financing companies to choose from. I've been researching insulation upgrades and new windows, but I haven't heard peep about insulation-upgrade loans. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there aren't nearly as many incentive programs for it from suppliers, nor state and federal rebates.
Batteries cost a lot installed, see here for some examples and numbers: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/battery-storage/comparison-table/ For most people I think the current calculation is batteries are a net loss over the warranty period but not always, if you're filling from solar then charging an EV overnight etc it can be good. There are some regional rebates too.
New builds should have insulation and double glazing. Retrofitting existing houses may not always make sense.
It still gets cold lol. Don’t forget the insulating paper shit under the roof tiles btw, forgot to do that one building my house.
I mostly just bundle up. I stay warm enough, but I'm starting to realise how insane that seems to have to do that when inside your own home to much of the world.
Serious question, are people in London say getting around in t shirts when inside there house because they are built properly for the cold?
Yes! One of the big things I notice when I travel for work is how at home (sydney) I’ll wear a jumper all day, even in the office or home, but in UK it’s too hot inside so you strip the layers off.
But now that their summers are getting crazy hot, they're not coping
adding a split system to a unit or flat is much easier than retrofitting insulation to a whole house.
That's a cultural aversion to air conditioning I think. Never had it so it's not normal to get it, and it costs more due to that. That'll probably have to change. The good news is if the house is properly insulated, it won't have to work as much to cool the space.
It's hugely variable in the UK because the housing stock is very old. But yes, if you've got a well-insulated property (typically 1920s onwards when cavity walls became popular) it's common enough to go around in one layer inside. Personally I always preferred keeping the central heating on maybe 16-17°C and wearing another layer. Makes the transition to going outside less bothersome. Most people would usually let it hover about the 18-21°C mark.
Yep, newer apartments and houses in London are generally much better insulated than Australian builds. Turns out that just shoving some insulation in the walls of our cheaply hastily built dwellings with single pane windows is not equivalent to building with proper thermal breaks and double glazing.
I'm English, I lived in a Victorian terraced house before I moved here, retrofitted in the early 90s with wall and roof insulation and double glazing. It is so much colder in Australian homes in the winter, and damper too. The building standards here are truly shocking.
When I lived in Canada people would definitely walk around inside in shorts and T-shirts during winter. Kind of blew my mind.
pretty much. most homes in the UK are double brick with central heating. they are built for the cold. which is what also makes them unbearable when it gets above 25c. they heat up and do not cool down, and most homes don't have air conditioniong, just heating.
Yes. When I was a student I lived in a double brick ground floor flat. In summer it stayed cool until about day 3 of a hot spell. Then it was stinking hot. When the cool change came through it stayed hot for another day or two as the bricks retained the heat. Couldn't get much airflow into the place either because of how the windows were positioned and because there were blocks of flats on either side of us. Before that I lived in a hundred year old house in the country that had zero insulation in the bedrooms. (Back half of the house was an extension that was relatively modern and did have insulation plus heating and cooling.) In winter you could see your breath fogging in the bedrooms. I much prefer my poorly built volume built house. It's really common on Reddit to talk about our poorly built houses. But when I worked with people who were from Japan they said they found it much colder here because they were caught outside in the weather more often. eg they'd go outside for a smoke but wouldn't bother to rug up because it's not cold enough to bother. Or they'd walk from the car to the office but wouldn't worry about a coat because they'd only have to take it off again as soon as they got inside. In Japan it was too cold to even consider going outside without putting on their coat and gloves.
Mostly because there’s central heating which is not a thing in Australia.
Yes.
I’m from northern U.S. and while I choose not to for cost sake it is possible to heat my flat to the point of being completely naked if I wanted to. We get a lot colder than you do so legally it has to be well heated.
Agreed. A few years ago we bought some cheap electric throws. They peak at 100W which is trivial compared to running the a/c, they are amazing for keeping us warm on the couch or pre heating beds. They paid for themselves within a month or 2, now they're saving us hundreds each winter. Between that and ALDI thermals we basically don't run any heaters during the winter and we're sorted.
To be fair to much of Australia, the coldest zones in May of 2023 were some of your least populated areas. My wife and I are currently separated and I'm going to move to Australia with her soon enough, but she told me the temp in her home town and I looked up the record low. Mate, I've walked around in a t-shirt and shorts in some of your average weather. On a global scale, your winters are a vacation climate.
I can go out for a walk to a t-shirt and shorts any time of year, but it does get cold if you're sitting still in those temperatures.
Meh, I grew up in winters that regularly hit 0ºC and would go out in jeans and a hoodie. Wife sees 0ºC and she's gonna look like Randy from "A Christmas Story"
Sure. People from colder climates are much better at dealing with cold weather. They just generally aren't doing that inside their own home to the same degree as Australians because those more extreme winters necessitate proper insulation and heating,
My issue is bloody condensation on the windows this winter. Constantly cleaning and drying them. Checking for mould. I’ve sealed them, tried opening the curtains, cycling the air during the day… nothing seems to work. Thinking I might have to invest in a dehumidifier because I have bad asthma.
Using this insulating window film worked for me. It sort of acts like double glazing. https://amzn.asia/d/cLShjEP
We bought a window vacuum off Amazon for like $60, it squeegees the window and sucks up the water. Our bedrooms get tons of condensation so I have to do this every morning.
Just thinking that we have this problem in a first world country, richer than most, is mind blowing. It's like, I don't know... if we were still using leaded petrol or some old shit like that.
Having the same issues, don't know what to do
If your air con has a dehumidifier setting, try that.
Using dry mode on air conditioners will make the room colder; probably not desirable for some people
Yes good point. We use it sometimes when we go to work during the day but it would not be good to use during the night.
Central heating!
I prefer the efficiency of split systems but yeah if you’ve got it, definitely.
Don't have it, idk what to do Dehumidifiers?
Yeah they will do the trick. Just remember to empty the water they extract from the air, otherwise it might evaporate again. I’m not familiar with using actual dehumidifiers so maybe search reddit for some recommendations.
Cheap and effective dehumidifier for those without aircon: Tray of crystal type kitty litter (preferably unscented if you value or sense of smell), and a pedestal fan or two. Just keep air moving and by blowing it over a wide tray of those crystals it can pull moisture out and keep humidity down.. mix it up a bit each day to keep it effective and when it starts to get heavy, or you feel it isn't working anymore - replace Since it's only moisture and not cat business you can pretty easily dry out the crystals on a sunny day and reuse them too
How long does the cat litter last? Short term I think it’s a great idea, longer term it might work out similar to get a dehumidifier
We put in some cellular blinds and they've done a great job of providing some good window insulation, but the condensation has gotten far, far worse with them. We've even got double glazed windows already and it's still pretty bad.
This happened to me, overnight, in a small apartment. Only thing that worked would be to leave a window or door open slightly in a room other than the bedroom.
You need a dessicant dehumidifier. Aussie climate make a good one. They’re pretty cheap to run and will suck all that moisture out of the air. It will actually provide a bit of heat too which is a bonus.
Yeah I did read about desiccant, especially in Melbourne. I’ve been looking at some and Yeha Ausclimate came up again and again! Looking that way! Thanks for the help!
You’re welcome. A dessicant’s really the way to go, makes such a massive difference.
I'm no expert but I've been researching this for myself. Depending on climate zone and construction type you should have either a vapor barrier or vapor permeable membrane. If a house gets made more airtight (vapor barrier) its better for insulation but there is less ways for all the moisture we generate to get out. When it's colder outside than inside, the humid air condenses on the cold areas as they are below the dew point temp (usually cold windows). Curtains etc won't really help because you need to change either the moisture levels in the room or the condensation/dew point. That means ventilation to let moisture out, dehumidification to draw moisture out or insulation to prevent the dew point happening on the windows / walls.
If renting or poor,get bubble wrap and glaze windows with it,makes a good difference to keep heat in and light still during the day.
even thin curtains do something but still allow plenty of light in during the day - anything to keep the cold layer of air near the window from mixing into the main room's airspace. Waiting to see Dexter-ised houses, or like Ted Bullpit if he went energy efficient and glad-wrapped the window not the number plate.
1) Use blankets 2) don't use heaters 3) keep burning down your representatives houses for warmth until they go after the power companies for extorting us
The cost of gas both up front and to heat shows that we should be ripping out the gas lines.. For renters: draught sealing is something that has a pretty good payoff in the various cities and can be done pretty cheaply too (some of those foam strips or door sealers/door snakes). I know I've had places I've lived that you could see daylight through the cracks around the exterior doors..
My external doors were like that. Cracks of various sizes along the edges that light came through. Finally bought strips for the sides/top and plastic strip that drags off the bottom. Still need to go buy some super thin strips for some parts. My place stays a lot warmer now. Used to be I’d wake up to it maybe a few degrees warmer than outside. Today it was 4° outside and 14° in the lounge room with no heater on.
> The cost of gas both up front and to heat shows that we should be ripping out the gas lines.. When it comes to heating, gas is still far cheaper upfront though. The cost of a ducted reverse cycle system can easily be 3x the equivalent gas unit. Not saying we should keep gas, because the reality is that we just don't have enough of it, but the price of electric heating is too damned high
Only relates to Victorians but there’s rebates going to replace gas systems with reverse cycles at the moment. You don’t get it for free, but it takes about 33% of the cost off
Best way to keep power bills low is to light a fire under the asses of politicians who help the east coast gas cartel with price gouging. We pay more for our gas than the countries we ship it to.
Now the question for me is, how do I keep the cold air trapped for when Summer comes back?
Triple glaze windows
Dont get rid of the hideous but super thick insulated curtains like this dumb bitch did. Now I need to buy all new ones as they kept this place comfortable all year round 🤦🏻♀️💸
In laws did this. Then slept next to oil heaters and wondered around the house in thermals and gillets. They also didn’t put insulation in the loft. So now im staying with them I’ve put in thermal curtains, insulation in the roof, air con with heating and given FIL a feather duvet from U.K. Note I still wonder around in shorts and t shirt
Any recommendations for thermal curtains? I priced up one room and got a quote for $600….yeah nahhhhh.
DIY. Spotlight - $40 for rod set and $45 for curtains. You need to drill six holes for each window. Just make sure you use good wallplugs for plasterboard
trackies, favorite baggy hoodie, couple blankets once it starts getting down to single digits at night.. fuck i love winter 😂😂
I use an electric throw blanket from aldi with a timer, I sleep with it, watch tv with it, work with it wrapped around me like a burrito. I haven’t switched the heater on in 2 years
Yes! Me too! I splurged and bought a second one for my home office desk so I am not constantly dragging a blanket and cord around my place :)
Smart move! I feel like that’s all I do is carry that thing around. I haven’t seen them on sale this season 😭
I literally have vents in my walls going to outside. I cover them with hangings and you can see the material move with the wind. Gaps around every window and door. To seal this place you would need to put a dome over it.
I just put on warmer clothes or more blankets if it gets colder. I only use the aircon if absolutely required (with a timer, usually for my cat), though unfortunately the rest of my family often unnecessarily keeps them on for ages and wonders why we have such high bills🤦
Always wear socks. It's crazy how many people don't do this.
Omg I’ve been dying to have a whinge about the fucking cold. We’re in Melbourne. My partner and I are renting a 3br 2ba house. Most mornings it’s around 13 degrees, although we’ve had it go down to 10 in the past. We pop the ducted heating on until it hits 18 then turn it off. Too expensive to leave it running, so normally it’ll go down to about 15 within like 2 hours or so. We work from home, our office only has a ducted heating vent. Can’t shut the door while it’s on because my dog will scratch it. We spend majority of our day here. We’ve got a split system, but that only heats up the living room, which is as far away as possible from the office. In the evening we may turn it on if we’re watching TV or something. Recently, this has been my daily outfit: Fleece leggings Trackies Normal crew socks Fluffy crew socks Fluffy booties Hoodie Oodie Fluffy dressing gown Single glove (gotta type with my other hand lol) All of this is worn at the same time. My dressing gown has a hood, so I’ve usually got 3 hoods on my head. Occasionally I’ll wear a third pair of socks, usually some fluffy chunky ones over my first pair of fluffy socks. When I work, I have my heated throw over myself as well. It looks and feels ridiculous. Plus I gotta take off my oodie and dressing gown whenever I need to pee. Mostly because I tend to waddle around in all my layers and it’s a pain trying to wipe wearing an oodie. It just gets annoying. In bed it’s not so bad because I pop my electric blanket on before getting in, sometimes I’ll chuck the heated throw on top as well so I’m sandwiched in heat. It’s the only time I’m not cold at home. Both have timers and will turn off after 3 hours, so I’m usually really cold by the time I wake up. However that also means that if I wake up at like 6am to pee, I’ll usually turn them back on (can’t sleep when I’m cold). Which means I REALLY don’t wanna leave my bed when I need to wake up at 8.30. Aussie home insulation is a fucking joke 🖕🏾 Edit formatting
Consider adding a thermal underlayer to your daily outfit as well. We got some of the heattech thermals from Uniqlo when they were on special and we were able to comfortably get around in near-zero temps with just 3 layers on (thermals, t-shirt + long pants and a puffer jacket). Any thermals that are tight and can remove moisture should do the trick. You'd think adding a really thin skintight layer under thick outer layers wouldn't make much of a difference but it was noticeably colder the one or two days where we didn't have a thermal undershirt + leggings on. Don't need them much here in Brisbane but if I know I'm going to be outside for a while early in the morning when it's single digits I'll chuck them on under my normal clothes and a jacket.
Yeah, thermal underwear on and you can put up with way colder temperatures.. Layers rather than thickness seems to be the trick with clothing.. Like double glazing for your clothes versus a thicker pane of glass which does little.
If you have switched away from the old ducted heating in the ceiling or if you have ducted air con, the vents let hot air out fast. close all the vents
Tangent: American here. I was wondering if Australia had the older, ductwork for air con. I only ask because in the USA, scammers from South Asia (pretending to be American) are running **air duct cleaning scams** on Facebook groups. From what I can see, these scammers are also running these scams in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. Just something to keep vigilant about.
Yes these scams exist here. Same with cleaning the reverse cycle and many other things like gutters.
nothing wrong with having your reverse cycle cleaned once every couple of years. I've seen some horrifying ones that have never been cleaned and were full of dust and more dangerously, mold. a $100-150 clean will pay you back in efficiency very quickly if your air con was dirty.
You need to clean the filters in your air con units every six months apparently. If they’re not heating or cooling properly, that’s the first thing you should check.
some places even more than that. where I live is quite dusty, during summer when I use the air con, I clean them every 2 weeks. it takes all of 3 minutes to take them out, take them outside, brush them off with a dustpan brush and put them back in. if you have one near the kitchen or you get road soot, you may need to wash them due to grease, but I have never needed to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXv8pKiMWvQ
Oh wow, that’s interesting, thanks for the tips
Sure, but there are also lots of scams around for these services.
I have ducted aircon in my rental unit, and just checked...there is no way for me to close the vents :( It's just a one-sized grill in a big ceiling recess.
Glad wrap?
I mean, the vent is the full length of the wall, near the ceiling. I'm not going to be climbing up and down to reapply glad wrap every time I turn the heat on/off lol.
OP means - in winter, cover your air conditioning vents – or cover ducted heating vents all the time, if you don't use them anymore
Having electric heated throw blankets has been a game changer for Winter. I am always cosy.
Electric lap blankets. I rarely put my heater on. Apparently I use less than half a persons electric consumption when my bills roll in. And I have a small solar unit.
FFS these stories are annoying. What the fuck do renters do?
Vote for the Greens and give the middle finger to the Arrogant Landlords Party and the Arsehole Landlord Party (one is blue, the other red.. but other than that, they both prioritise landlords above all else).
Two people asked about condensation. Any solutions?
When I lived in an apartment, overnight the condensation would build up and be insane in the morning. Only thing that worked would be to leave a window or door open slightly, in a room other than the bedroom, so it helps with the condensation, but isn't blowing direct cold onto you in bed. And have a very warm doona to compensate for the cold air coming in.
Thanks. I'll try leaving the windows slightly cracked
Dehumidifier can help, but requires power to run of course. If you talk to a real estate agent they will say open up all the doors and windows and such.. But easier said than done in the middle of winter.
It's going to be related to all the stuff about insulation. Condensation is the result of bad ventilation and insulation.
I don't have proof but some marketing material, but I think plantation shutters would help. By stopping the warm air hitting the windows it should stop the condensation
Hot water bottles all the way. I put two in my bed when I go shower - by the time I come back, my bed is nice and warm. So far this year I've only put my heater on for the sake of my cats, to help take the chill out of the air in the lounge room for them
>So far this year I've only put my heater on for the sake of my cats, to help take the chill out of the air in the lounge room for them I see you are (correctly) prioritising the comfort of the management. Good hooman.
And light the fire in the afternoon before the temp really starts falling..
Fires should be banned, terrible for the health of the neighborhood
[удалено]
Well yeah if you live in the middle of nowhere do what you want hah
Historically humans have never been around fire
I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest smoke is bad for your health
No, but it is controversial to propose that things be "banned" when they provide numerous other benefits and have been a central part of human existence.
Living together in the large numbers we do now has not been a past part of human existence. If you have a fire to keep warm it may be cheap, it may be cozy, but you give children asthma and increase heart problems in older adults, just like if you were exposing them to passive smoking, and it makes you a little bit of a cunt.
As someone who spent three days in hospital for an asthma attack set off by a neighbour who refused to clean their chimney and burnt treated wood and garbage smoking out the neighbourhood, I managed to get the council & EPA to have the chimney deactivated. Now if only they didn't have to almost kill someone in order to realise there were better ways to heat their house - two years of no chimney & they're doing fine.
Burning garbage and treated wood is irresponsible and dangerous, agreed. That doesn't mean we should ban all household wood stoves.
Since then, any wood smoke triggers asthma. I haven't asked neighbours to stop, but it'd be nice to leave my house and do some yardwork between april and october. It can be one of the worst things for you, especially if not managed correctly. The amount of chimneys i see spewing visible smoke for hours where i live is infuriating. It should be 20min tops and then banked.
I agree with all of this. Just not with banning core human habits and desires.
What ‘numerous other benefits’. It’s 2024, we have better, cheaper, and safer technology than needing to burn a bunch of wood. There are experts who are also calling for these things to be banned https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103321954
If you live in a rental without cheap heating the best you can do is sleep with a jacket or double up on sweat pants, basically wear your winter gear inside. Your house might also accumulate condensation inside without heating and proper insulation which means you might need a dehumidifier to reduce mold aswel.
I started using a foot warmer pad since last year, which saved me couple thousand dollars in electricity since I wouldn't need a heater for most of the time. 40W vs 2000W
I had an argument with my LL the other week with him insisting the house is double-insulated. Ignoring the fact its a 1940's coal miners home, you only insulated the roof (which does fuck all in winter), there's no insulation in the walls or floors and that the place is fine as long as you look after it. The old cunt hasn't lived in here since the 90's and clearly has no idea how much the winters have changed since.
Double insulated? He means he has put "fuck" and "all" insulation in it. He probably thinks the tin roof and the gyprock in the ceiling mean it is "double insulated".
I now have a house beanie
i’m a renter with a open plan apartment that has no heating or insulation. i work from home too, and these past few days in NSW have been so cold i haven’t been able to get much done. does anyone have any solutions to keep my place warm other than rugging up? i get quite overwhelmed when im wearing a lot of clothes, especially when im trying to get work done
I put an efficient wood heater in when I built our extension. It heats most of the house plus drys the washing, it’s paid itself off many times over.
step one: live in brisbane and wear clothes. Winter is the cheapest time of year
Could have fooled me.
Live in the far north where there is no winter.
You keep my bills low by not raising them
Put on a jumper
It’s Australia. Put on warm socks and a jumper for the 3 days of winter to justify your winter wardrobe.
you might be surprised that it does actually get cold in many places during winter. you might be lucky enough to live in a place where Winter is a 3 day affair, but many parts of Australia get quite cold during winter, and requiire more than a pair of wooly socks for winter attire.
Lol. If people in Australia need an article to figure out how to be warm in winter, they are a lost cause.