5 ms·

Down here in Australia central heating is (also) not very common, and at least around Melbourne it can dip to freezing or below throughout July and August. Gene

Down here in Australia central heating is (also) not very common, and at least around Melbourne it can dip to freezing or below throughout July and August. Generally only one room of the house is heated (often the room with the air conditioner on heat setting). Beds have electric blankets or hot water bottles, and otherwise you wear several layers if you want to be warm elsewhere. The curious thing is that gas is prevalent but gas furnaces are not, and electricity is too expensive to use to heat an entire house.

stephen_g 12y ago
I think it's crazy how badly we insulate our houses in Australia. I live in Brisbane, and many houses just aren't insulated at all, like old Queenslanders [1] that just let the wind blow through underneath the floorboards and in through cracks in the walls, and even new-builds hardly have any... You'd think it never gets cold here, but it really does for a couple of months at least... What you end up with is houses that cost craploads to heat or cool and just have generally terrible thermal performance. Sydney and Melbourne (that have colder winters) aren't much better... I hope to build a house eventually, and fully intend to pack it with insulation, air-seal it as much as possible, use all double-glazed windows, and then use an energy recovery ventilation system to stop condensation and mould problems and reduce the load on the heating/cooling system. From my research, it looks like even a small PV solar system on the roof should be enough to completely offset the heating and cooling costs and keep the entire building at a comfortable temperature. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenslander_%28architecture%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenslander_%28architecture%2...
cashmonkey85 12y ago
New Zealand is much the same with cheap uninsulated houses plus some bonus mold from a humid winter. Living in poorer korea now but the standard of living is higher just because they bother to insulate their houses.

stephen_g 12y ago

I think it's crazy how badly we insulate our houses in Australia. I live in Brisbane, and many houses just aren't insulated at all, like old Queenslanders [1] that just let the wind blow through underneath the floorboards and in through cracks in the walls, and even new-builds hardly have any... You'd think it never gets cold here, but it really does for a couple of months at least... What you end up with is houses that cost craploads to heat or cool and just have generally terrible thermal performance. Sydney and Melbourne (that have colder winters) aren't much better... I hope to build a house eventually, and fully intend to pack it with insulation, air-seal it as much as possible, use all double-glazed windows, and then use an energy recovery ventilation system to stop condensation and mould problems and reduce the load on the heating/cooling system. From my research, it looks like even a small PV solar system on the roof should be enough to completely offset the heating and cooling costs and keep the entire building at a comfortable temperature. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenslander_%28architecture%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenslander_%28architecture%2...

cashmonkey85 12y ago

New Zealand is much the same with cheap uninsulated houses plus some bonus mold from a humid winter. Living in poorer korea now but the standard of living is higher just because they bother to insulate their houses.