Why Do All Properties in Australia Have Terrible Insulation?

• 1
• 2
• 3

• 

  Windows7forever on 23/08/2022 - 12:30

  -2

  If you live near the coast, insulation is not as important. Winters are mild and summers are warm but often with a sea breeze.

• 

  Ghost47 on 23/08/2022 - 17:23

  +2

  Have you ever tried placing bubble wrap on your windows? Supposedly it helps to improve insulation.

  Also prevents creepy neighbors trying to stare into your house.

  • 

    drillvoice on 24/08/2022 - 11:02

    +1

    simple and effective

• 

  team teri on 23/08/2022 - 21:41

  You can directly blame the 2 party system combined with biased media.

  Whatever the guys in power come up with to improve building standards, whoever is in opposition at that time will say: "but it's going to increase cost of housing, poor families won't be able to afford homes any more". Then the media will amplify this garbage to an extent that elections get lost.

  Combine that with the "she'll be right mate" attitude and very few will voluntarily do more than what is legally required.

  With 6.6kW solar systems going for ~$4000 my neighbours, who have a perfect NNW facing roof and have lived in the same house (they own) for almost 20 years, still haven't installed one. My mind boggles at the savings they missed out and the impact it would have had on their carbon emissions.

• 

  drillvoice on 24/08/2022 - 11:02

  +2

  (1) Why do Australian homes have terrible insulation?
  Many homes were built before any standards were in place. Culturally, people have come to expect and be accustomed to bad insulation. People don't know what they are missing out on. Relatively mild winters make the problem worse, ironically: we are colder indoors than in Sweden, because we are less compelled to make decent homes for winter.

  Landlords are part of the problem, because they have no interest in improving the properties they own, but there is a bigger problem.

  (2) How to help? IF you own, definitely insulate your home, put in window treatments like heavy blinds (floor length) and pelmets. Draught-sealing is #1 and something you can also do if renting.

• 

  SupeNintendoChalmers on 24/08/2022 - 11:55

  +1

  When I built my home, my parents were shaking their head as to why I was spending around $35K extra to double glaze and put the best wall and ceiling insulation the entire home. I even optioned a white colourbond roof in a sea of black tile roofs.

  I pay around $60 a month in heating costs, my parents, on the other hand just ate a gas bill of a shade under $500.

  To put in further into perspective, we're a family of 5, my parents are by themselves.

• 

  whitepuma on 24/08/2022 - 14:13

  +2

  I had a short stint as a designer in the fenestration industry (left because the money wasn't there).

  I was always amazed when i would go to conventions and work events where they were talking about other countries where they used double glazed windows and doors as a standard, then their higher tier stuff was triple and in some rare cases quad triple glazed…..they were even experimenting filling the airgaps with other gases to improve the insulation properties.

  …meanwhile here in aus it was single glaze almost all the time, and only in special cases would we go to double glazed.
  After speaking to the sales teams numerous times over, it all purely came down to cost…..many people don't see the financial benefit of double glazed or better insulation, and people just want whatever is cheapest to get the job done.

  i tell you what though, from what i learnt there, if i were to build a house, proper insulation all the way!

• 

  Viper8 on 24/08/2022 - 17:24

  Delta temperature from ideal.
  Ideal indoor temp is 22.
  In Aus it's rare for a location to deviate from ideal by more than 20 degrees.
  The larger the delta grows the more of an impact it has on temperature transfer. For example thermal radiation transfer is determined by delta T to the power of 4.
  So a climate where it regularly goes just 5 degrees cooler, for a total delta of 25 instead of 20, experiences more than double the rate of temperature transfer.
  Put simply, high latitude locations typically have climates where the delta temp becomes larger (colder) than that experienced at locations throughout Aus. Hence insulation, including double glazing etc. is worth investing more money into relative to here. Their building lose heat at a much faster rate than ours.

  Australia on the other hand has an extremely powerful sun. Double glazing does almost nothing to stopping the sun. Hence why Australian houses typically have eaves, roller shutters etc. Eaves don't count as insulation, yet they're the best kind after shade from external sources like trees.

  • 

    Hangryuman on 25/08/2022 - 08:52

    +1

    'Delta temperature from ideal. Ideal indoor temp is 22'

    guess you're trying to sound cool by saying Delta, and I guess to mean 'the difference in'

    My readings suggest that while recommended daytime activity comfortable temperature may be 20-22C (mine is actually 23C)

    sleep temperatures recommended are generally more like 15C

    We have this in our unit with north-facing living areas and balcony/glass for warm winter sun, and south-facing bedrooms for cooler sleep.

    Worst aspects tend to be bedrooms facing east in summer which can get blinding sun waking you up at sparrow's, and west bedrooms turned into hot ovens by late afternoon sun in summer.

    In Sydney cold winter winds tend to come from the south-west, so yesterday when I was gazing at a newish inner city 42 storey residential building with half of the balconies facing north-east (ideal warm winter sun and cool summer breezes), and half facing south-west (worst hot summer sun for bedrooms, and worst winter cold winds) I was thinking yeah nah half of those would be a great place not to live …

    • 

      Viper8 on 25/08/2022 - 11:16

      "sound cool". Lol OK. That's literally the word used to describe the difference between two values with the same units in physics. The Greek symbol Delta is used before the number. It's standard practice.

• 

  ECE on 25/08/2022 - 21:05

  What do you expect you are living in a backward first world country. 🤣😷

• 

  uzz30 on 29/08/2022 - 09:19

  Ozbargain asked for it

  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/national-construction…

  • 

    jedimaster on 30/08/2022 - 09:51

    time to move to QLD then :D

• 

  Buckshot on 01/09/2022 - 13:17

  +1

  We built a double brick home in WA 18 months ago. We have insulation in the air gap, the thicker foam/foil sheeting type and Low-E Glass because we have many oversized windows in the main living area. I wanted double glazing, but it was somewhere within 40k, which was a real shame.

  I hired an energy consultant to recommend the best things to implement, from cheapest to most expensive. They charged $300.

  I Already have:

  6.6kw Solar system installed
  Ceramic Tint
  Installing a solar-powered exhaust fan in the roof cavity
  (Some) draft stopping weather strips- need more,

  Next steps:

  Security mesh door for front door to take advantage of the afternoon breezes.
  Ceiling Fans
  Full-sized blackout curtains with pelmet
  Architectural horizontal awnings
  Also recommended a heat pump water heater over our instant gas.

  I wish I'd known more about passive energy-saving principles before building, I will take this all into consideration for the next build as I definitely didn't do enough research beforehand.

• 1
• 2
• 3