cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1232260
Rentals in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and ACT dropped below 18C more than 80% of the time, report finds
We don’t have to have double glazed windows in Australia. The energy rating is often sold as 5 star! But, the scale is out of 10 🙄.
We’re a dumb country when it comes to building houses. I’m not an architect, or an engineer, but, out summers reach 40°C+ in summer, yet our modern houses have dark grey roof’s made of colorbond steel. Too hot outside, let me crank my air con…there goes that 5 star rating of my barely energy efficient home
The star system for housing here is somewhat lacking. Input from vested interests from within industry has made it less than ideal from the consumer point of view. Although its not utterly useless like food star ratings.
We really should be looking to certified passive houses as the aspirational standard.
My house gets below 16 in Winter. The bank owns it and we are barely hanging on so it will stay that way. It’s a full reno to undo the mistakes of the 90s (and dodgy building). Slab isn’t insulated, clay bricks aren’t insulated, louvres leak, no roof insulation. It’s not your standard house so it’s difficult to fix up as well.
Oh well. Such is life.
Roof insulation is one of the first items to fix. Get R5 or R6 earthwool from Bunnings. It costs a lot but fuck is it good. It’s actually very easy to install, just be careful around the downlights (you need a gap around them).
The other quick fix is all the drafts cracks and leaks. Get door snakes, door and window seals, blinds. Don’t worry about the floor heat won’t sap from that.
Cheers!
The way the roof space is built is different. It’s open to the outside world with rodent mesh along eave, open to peak down to other side. Which is then open through rodent mesh vents to the outside at peak. I guess it was built the Queenslander way, vent everything. Will applying insulation that is almost like it’s outside cause moisture issues against plaster?
The bricks are very cold to touch so I looked it up and you can buy insulated panels with plaster on one side. Too expensive for us though, we have no available cash.
Aluminum doors, windows, louvres could use a good fix. The louvres need replacing first, it’s a breeze when they are shut. No way to seal them. I think replacing the louvres with modern onesnis best as it’s probably the worst issue. The biggest doors have curtains with pelmets, curtains are light-ish, nearly medium.
Yikes. What type of house?
I’m in Brisbane.
The good thing about the uninsulated floor is that in Summer it stays cool till after midday and then the walls and roof heat up significantly.
an Australian house, lel.
yeah, I guess it just gets a little colder down in NSW
Came home to our place in Melbourne from two weeks away and the indoor temp was 2c.
Living in Perth now, it’s early evening and the house is already 19c inside. It’ll drop to 16c by midnight. Both houses are brick/tile.
Yes, I can run the reverse-cycle in a few rooms, and they’ll be toasty. Yes, I have heaters for other rooms. We use those when necessary, but they’re too expensive to run all winter.
Is that with or without heating? Without heating we can wake up to 14 degrees in the morning, and our house is pretty new.
Apparently there are pretty easy tricks to improve your heat storage.
I work for a global company headquartered in Europe, and we regularly have visitors from the mothership come to Sydney. Every year, without fail, they will all regularly comment on how they’ve never been so cold indoors. They also come from countries where it snows regularly.
I’m not exactly shocked. Even here in Brisbane it can be freezing in winter. Australian housing is rubbish.
Yup. We’re living with the mistakes of the past and no one wants to fix it for the future.
Fucking moronic people who looked at the Queenslander and thought, “that’s PERFECT for a giant paddock of a Territory that regularly drops below freezing!”
And then 80 years of builders followed suit, but each iteration they stripped more of the charm out.
