While you might be looking forward to the season of mulled wine and woolly jumpers, you’re probably less excited about months of huddling around your living room heater.
We live in a sunburnt country, so why are our houses so cold in winter? Here’s why Australian houses are notorious for their chilly temperatures.
“Many Australian homes are just glorified tents,” Queensland University of Technology professor, Adrian Barnett, declared in 2015, after a widely discussed study in The Lancet medical journal reported that far more people die of cold in Australia than Sweden.
Barnett blamed Australia’s “flimsy” houses, which are far less equipped to deal with cold weather than their counterparts in the northern hemisphere.
Dr Lyrian Daniel, a University of Adelaide researcher who studies Australia’s “hidden cold housing phenomenon,” found that 81 of the 100 houses monitored through winter were often below the minimum 18 degrees recommended by the World Health Organisation.
This sample test was done across five states, each with their own climates.
“The houses were designed to perform well in summer, but hadn’t really given so much thought to winter,” she says.
Australian homes built before the early 2000s, when governments first started to mandate energy efficiency standards for residential buildings, were rarely built with warmth in mind.
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“We have sort of gotten away with pretty poor building standards, because our climate’s not too bad,” says Daniel. “That’s probably been our mentality.”
“From this, we have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to winter and our houses. There’s this element of stoicism, like ‘oh, it’s not that cold, we’ll just put the heater on.”
Daniel says this mentality works to an extent – but the current cost of living crisis means that many are opting to forgo the heater due to its expense.
When not properly insulated, the brick often used in older homes can absorb heat from inside the house, and double-glazed windows common in colder climates can be prohibitively expensive to install into existing homes in Australia.
“If it’s a choice between double-glazing and a nicer kitchen, I think most households that haven’t experienced a double-glazed home would have other priorities,” Daniel says.
Ill-fitting windows and doors that aren’t properly sealed can let cold air into your home and warm air escape. All those gaps add up, and leaks can worsen with time.
You can hunt for hidden leaks around your home by looking around doors, windows and skirting boards for visible light. On windy days, listen for whistling sounds and feel for moving air around doors, windows, vents or floorboards. Don’t forget to check for drafts in less obvious places, such as built-in appliances, chimneys or exhaust fans.
You can visit your local hardware store for advice on a range of products, such as door snakes, fireplace dampers and caulking guns, to seal gaps.
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The design features that seem so charming in period homes can impact your warmth in winter. Traditional terrace houses with small, single-glazed windows and large eaves can limit the amount of sun that enters your home – older Australian homes generally weren’t built with regard for orientation towards the sun.
Keep your blinds open during the day, particularly on the north-facing and west-facing side of the home. This will allow sunshine to warm up your rooms before the temperature drops at night.
You may need to reconsider your love of modern minimalism in winter. Soft furnishings, such as rugs and curtains, can warm up cold surfaces in your house and prevent heat from escaping.
Windows that allow sunshine in during the day may pose a problem at night. According to CHOICE, up to 40 per cent of heat loss in the home comes from bare windows. At night, use heavy curtains instead of blinds to block draughts and insulate your windows from the cold outdoors.
Rugs and carpeting can add extra layers of insulation to bare floors, especially timber floorboards raised above the ground. Timber floors can crack with age, letting cold air in via the subfloor.
Fixing this problem can be as simple as some clever redecorating. You can place bookshelves or wardrobes in front of bare walls for added insulation, or move couches and beds away from windows, so you’re not sitting or sleeping in particularly cold areas.
Once you have taken steps to cut down on heat loss in your home, your heater won’t have to work as hard. Then if you do want to invest in a more energy-efficient heater, it can make your house feel warmer and save you money.
If you’re tossing up between a portable electric heater or reverse-cycle air conditioner, it’s worth considering the upfront cost of the appliance – but don’t forget to factor in the long-term running costs, which can be greater for portable options.
In most states and territories, landlords are not legally obligated to provide energy-efficient heating.
This applies in all states but Victoria, where residential investors do need to ensure the installation of a fixed heater (not portable) with two or more energy stars.
Daniel explains that housing temperatures have been legislated at a Federal level, but individual states and territories are able to implement these measures in their own time.
Consumer advocacy sites like CHOICE, government sites like yourhome.gov.au or state government sites like Sustainability Victoria have advice on the kinds of heating devices that will work best for your home.
“Most of our climate, particularly around the southern states … they’re all still heating dominant climates, which means it takes more energy to keep things warm than cool in summer,” Daniel says.
