Australian houses second largest in the world.

[Que Sera Sera]

Not sure what houses everyone else is living in, but the facts for us are, that we have a 4x2 5 months old now, new build and its got down to 1c on a number of nights here, and we have one gas fire in the family room and its enough to heat the whole house in about 30 minutes. We dont need anymore heating and we only need it on for a few hours in the evening and for an hour in the mornings. As usual sometimes when I read posts here I wonder what country they are referring to because it has no bearing on the country I know and live in. :huh:

[Bob1]

It's not necessarily bad insulation that is the problem - the houses are built for a hot climate - no carpets and tiles or wooden floors - perfect to walk around on with bare feet for most of the year. The windows don't have heavy curtains but blinds, and infact I don't have either on my north facing windows in my lounge. I have friends in the South of France - similar climate to here - who have the same moans about winter as they have tiled floors too.

[Paul1Perth]

Same here. We have a 4x2 open plan with high ceilings, so a big space to heat up. We have reverse cycle aircon now but don't bother with it in the mornings as we are going out to work or school. The last couple of evenings it's not been on, we just put on a jumper and wear long trousers instead of shorts.

 

Before we had the aircon we had one portable gas heater with a fan in it and it served us quite nicely. We have a wood burning stove but we've not used that for about 15 years.

 

Sure it gets cold in the mornings sometimes but nothing like scraping the ice off the inside of the windows like I remember doing in the UK.

[Harpodom]

Not sure what houses everyone else is living in, but the facts for us are, that we have a 4x2 5 months old now, new build and its got down to 1c on a number of nights here, and we have one gas fire in the family room and its enough to heat the whole house in about 30 minutes. We dont need anymore heating and we only need it on for a few hours in the evening and for an hour in the mornings. As usual sometimes when I read posts here I wonder what country they are referring to because it has no bearing on the country I know and live in. :huh:

 

yeah, I know the feeling

[rikyuu]

You've got it spot on Moving to Melbourne.

 

This is the problem, as you say, you doubt you could afford to come out here now. Its also very difficult at the current time to come out with any money behind you.....house prices are still low in the UK, its hard to sell a housse to release the equity and even if the house does sell it wont get you much equity. The you only get 1.5 dollars to the pound so the money you will have to buy a house here will be very little. Add to that the expense of houses in Australia (and the fact stamp duty is about $20k and compulsary insurance if you have less than a 20% deposit (of another $20k, in Victoria anyway) and you can see that you need $40k before you have nothing.......the average house must be around $400k and its nearer $600k for a decent place.....but lets work off $400k

 

So you would need $100,000 in order to put down a deposit plus stamp duty and avoid the cumpulsary insurance. Thats 66,000 pounds. The you will have a mortgage of $320,000 at 7% which is about $23,000 a year in interest alone......($2000 a month), and thats for a house for $400,000 which will be horrible anyway.

 

Its just not viable in terms of a dream life at the moment.............................................................................................

 

or rent the same house for $1500pm and keep your 66k GBP in the bank for when/if things improve. It can been a pain renting, but buying can be a bigger pain and makes you a lot less flexible.

[Que Sera Sera]

yeah, I know the feeling

 

You really dont like me do you? :frown:

[Harpodom]

You really dont like me do you? :frown:

 

its not that, its just that we look at the same thing in different ways:wink:

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

Not sure what houses everyone else is living in, but the facts for us are, that we have a 4x2 5 months old now, new build and its got down to 1c on a number of nights here, and we have one gas fire in the family room and its enough to heat the whole house in about 30 minutes. We dont need anymore heating and we only need it on for a few hours in the evening and for an hour in the mornings. As usual sometimes when I read posts here I wonder what country they are referring to because it has no bearing on the country I know and live in. :huh:

 

 

Ah but ...... This threads about the size of the houses, they are almost three times bigger on average than the UK, great you would think, positive, something good for migrants to look forward to, but ....... The moaners and whingers don't like this, so they try to discredit this by saying negative stuff, to put people hoff emigrating, instead of agreeing that it's great living in a huge house, compared to the cramped house in, in the UK having great indoor, outdoor living space, but noooooo, they want to moan. Positives and negatives, like it's hard to get them warm in winter, but it's fantastic in summer, but they can't bring themselves to say something good and the thing is ....... They don't even know they are doing it.

[Harpodom]

Ah but ...... This threads about the size of the houses, they are almost three times bigger on average than the UK, great you would think, positive, something good for migrants to look forward to, but ....... The moaners and whingers don't like this, so they try to discredit this by saying negative stuff, to put people hoff emigrating, instead of agreeing that it's great living in a huge house, compared to the cramped house in, in the UK having great indoor, outdoor living space, but noooooo, they want to moan. Positives and negatives, like it's hard to get them warm in winter, but it's fantastic in summer, but they can't bring themselves to say something good and the thing is ....... They don't even know they are doing it.

 

get over yourself Jim, its time you got Hoff your soapbox

[Guest The Ropey HOFF]

get over yourself Jim, its time you got Hoff your soapbox

 

 

Calm down dear, raised blood pressure isn't good for you, put me on ignore if I bother you so much and ...... I clearly do, lol.

[Harpodom]

Calm down dear, raised blood pressure isn't good for you, put me on ignore if I bother you so much and ...... I clearly do, lol.

 

You don't bother me, thats way Hoff the mark.

[northshorepom]

One of the major principles is insulation...they skin the buildings inside and then inject cavities with liquid foam, spray it all over the underside of the roof tiles..fill any little cracks or gaps. Ventilation comes from aircon or low solar power fans to prevent condensation.

The test is to open all the internal doors and leave them standing ajar, then place a massive "hoover" outside the house by the front door, then tape it over the door to seal the gap.

The "hoover" attempts to suck the air out of the house. If any of the internal doors move because of airflow, you have a gap somewhere and you fail the test. If the doors don't move, you have a vacuum and your house is airtight, so will retain it's ambient temperature better.

The owner gets a tax break, lower bills, and the value of the property is enhanced as they become more desirable....and he's made literally millions of $ in the last 10 years, just cannot keep up with the demand which is booming....especially as the buying market is dead so people are renovating existing plots, putting on 2nd storeys etc...

If that cultural change is possible in Georgia with the local rednecks, it's possible in Australia who have similar roots and attitudes to life.

 

In his own house, he reckons his aircon switches on twice a day in summer for a cool blast, then 3 times a day in winter where they can wear T-shirts in the house when it's -5 outside.....you just can't do that in Oz, but they're very similar places.

If you can get that effect and save money...why wouldn't everybody want that?

 

Absolutely my point - these airtightness tests are the same ones that are used on commercial buildings, if you have an airtight building with some insulation and make sure it's designed to avoid damp issues then you can heat and cool them for pennies

 

Checkout some of the stuff the Germans build - hot summers and cold winters, but with very low energy requirements because the houses are designed for it. It's so easy to do and a total no-brainer IMO

[landv]

Not sure what houses everyone else is living in, but the facts for us are, that we have a 4x2 5 months old now, new build and its got down to 1c on a number of nights here, and we have one gas fire in the family room and its enough to heat the whole house in about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Do you mean that one gas fire in your living room heats up all the other rooms in the house as well?

 

We have a relatively small house, have a reverse cycle aircon but it only warms up the living area, by the time I get to the bedroom through the hallway the temperature drops significantly.

[johnjinky]

theres more space here in oz so the houses are bigger...also the blocks and houses are getting smaller...people rant putting negative things on to stop people emmergrating why the hell would anyone do that..its peoples opinions the same as you put yours on...the difference being you can only comment on the uk cos you've never lived here I've lived in both places...and its just my opinion that the houses are shite who gives a dam about how big or small your house is...its a myth...move here for a few years and maybe people will take you and your comments seriously

[northshorepom]

It's not necessarily bad insulation that is the problem - the houses are built for a hot climate - no carpets and tiles or wooden floors - perfect to walk around on with bare feet for most of the year. The windows don't have heavy curtains but blinds, and infact I don't have either on my north facing windows in my lounge. I have friends in the South of France - similar climate to here - who have the same moans about winter as they have tiled floors too.

 

It is bad insulation that is the potential problem - finishes have an effect on perception but not much on inside temperatures (except curtains, but once you've got double glazing they don't make much difference either - no one has them in Scandinavia)

 

As per Slean Wolfhead's post, you can make houses built in an Aussie way and for an Aussie type of climate perform well in winter as well as summer, in fact it's pretty easy

 

I suggest Que Sera Sera and Paul1Perth live in well insulated houses - they do exist. It's the norm that I have an issue with (you don't have to take my word for it, see the graph posted earlier from the ABS as to the percentage of houses with any insulation - just over 50% in NSW in 2005). See that scraping the ice off windows in the UK? I remember having to do that in the 1970s as well, not done it since the 80s though because people wised up. I don't have to scrape the ice off the window here in Sydney, but if it ever got sub-zero here I'd have to, I have no doubt of that - the inside temp drops pretty rapidly to not much over 10C as soon as the heating's off

[Guest guest17301]

Some homes are smaller, some bigger....I dont think theres THAT much difference, I mean a new build 4 bed detached in the UK is fairly spacious isnt it? Some of the new builds here are massive, some smaller. The victorian semis in the UK are pretty big with big gardens...I think the difference is a lot of people still live in terraced 2 up 2 down homes in England and that style of house isnt popular here though there are a lot of what they call cottage blocks..ie poky little house best for couples only..here on the new estates. I think the comparative cost of living in a bigger home here is less so more people tend to do so and then decide that all homes in Oz are big...its not that its that they couldnt afford a nice big house in England. I know people go on about how expensive property is here but honestly if you buy in a lower priced suburb you can get a decent good sized home and garden very affordably. That is my experience at least....we couldnt afford to buy the size of home we wanted in the UK..but we can here...and that has nothing to do with exchange rates or equity because we had none...we saved our deposit over 18 months and then bought.

[Bob1]

I have a big house, it's cold in winter, I don't care, it's part of living in Oz, just something that every other Australian lives with for three months of the year, and if they can do it, so can I and I don't moan about it. Cultural difference - just accept it. Put on the ugg boots, got the electric blanket, the heater comes out the garage for three months of the year then goes away again, really what's the big deal.

[Guest guest17301]

Exactly!

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Not sure what houses everyone else is living in, but the facts for us are, that we have a 4x2 5 months old now, new build and its got down to 1c on a number of nights here, and we have one gas fire in the family room and its enough to heat the whole house in about 30 minutes. We dont need anymore heating and we only need it on for a few hours in the evening and for an hour in the mornings. As usual sometimes when I read posts here I wonder what country they are referring to because it has no bearing on the country I know and live in. :huh:

Try living in Melbourne :wink:

[fourcorners]

Insulation will also keep it substantially cooler for the remaining 7 or 8 hot months, thus saving on electricity for aircon/fans.

 

Exactly.

 

Insulation doesn't just matter in winter, it would really help a lot in summer too. In high summer we have the air con pretty much all the time that we are in the house. In winter, we have to keep the fire stoked up and even then it only keeps the front of the house warm, the back living room is freezing cold at the moment, and it's huge, so I don't even bother putting the electric heater on, there's just no point because as soon as you turn it off, poof! the heat just floats away through the roof and walls. Our house is 70 years old, originally fibro but now clad in weatherboard. Corrugated tin roof. We know there's no insulation in the ceiling as recently the landlord put his hoof through the ceiling and all that fell down was probably 50 years build up of red dust!

 

I think it really depends on where you are here. In land as we are we do get frosts, I've had to scrape ice of the windscreen in the morning. It has gotten down to -4C where I work. Now that is bloomin' freezing when you have a vast living area, no insulation and inadequate heating options. This situation is probably completely different from those living near the beach in Perth where the temps don't get as low. I wish I could pluck my Cornish cottage up with its 3ft thick stone walls, and plonk it down here, as it would be much more comfortable in both summer and winter. And yes it's much smaller, but I don't care! My current house has huge empty spaces because I refuse to buy the overpriced extra large furniture that seems to be fashionable here.

 

Pros of having a larger house: more space to do Yoga.... that's about it.

Cons of having a larger house: more space to heat/cool, more surface area to clean which I detest

 

And our relatives in the UK don't believe us when we say it's cold. We even had to pick up the computer and point the camera at the wood fire so they could see on Skype that yes we really do need to light the fire, every night in winter. And potential immigrants will not believe this until they start renting here and go through their first winter. Even if they've visited during winter, they probably stayed in a nice comfy hotel with split systems, or in relatives houses who have had years to modify their homes. Renters get the worst properties, and pay through the nose for the privilege of living in them.

[Harpodom]

I have a big house, it's cold in winter, I don't care, it's part of living in Oz, just something that every other Australian lives with for three months of the year, and if they can do it, so can I and I don't moan about it. Cultural difference - just accept it. Put on the ugg boots, got the electric blanket, the heater comes out the garage for three months of the year then goes away again, really what's the big deal.

 

yeah fine, but what about those with young children, or the elderly?

 

Do you really believe that in 2012, in a first world country, that this is a good thing?

[flag of convenience]

Absolutely my point - these airtightness tests are the same ones that are used on commercial buildings, if you have an airtight building with some insulation and make sure it's designed to avoid damp issues then you can heat and cool them for pennies

 

Checkout some of the stuff the Germans build - hot summers and cold winters, but with very low energy requirements because the houses are designed for it. It's so easy to do and a total no-brainer IMO

 

Germany has probably the toughest requirements in the world.New laws came into place in recent times. The costs around meeting these were astromonical for older houses. We learnt from experience. Reason folk there prefer newer builds as well. Folk that want to see how houses should be built could do worse than see how it's done there. A lot of houses in Australia resemble sheds in comparison.

[fourcorners]

I have a big house, it's cold in winter, I don't care, it's part of living in Oz, just something that every other Australian lives with for three months of the year, and if they can do it, so can I and I don't moan about it. Cultural difference - just accept it. Put on the ugg boots, got the electric blanket, the heater comes out the garage for three months of the year then goes away again, really what's the big deal.

 

But the problem is that it's so wasteful!

 

There is so much technology in the world now to make homes super efficient, so we burn less fossil fuels and can live more efficiently. I know Australia has lots of coal but one day it won't. The cultural difference is that the Australians are so far behind the rest of the western world when it comes to building standards, probably because the economy gets a decent boost when all the houses need rebuilding every 30 years (Yes I know there are exceptions to this). I wouldn't say that this kind of cultural difference is a good thing, and is really holding Australia back. If we all had the attitude that if something is good enough for everyone else then its good enough for me, well then no good changes would ever come about and the world will stagnate. Why is there so much resistance to progress here?

[Harpodom]

But the problem is that it's so wasteful!

 

There is so much technology in the world now to make homes super efficient, so we burn less fossil fuels and can live more efficiently. I know Australia has lots of coal but one day it won't. The cultural difference is that the Australians are so far behind the rest of the western world when it comes to building standards, probably because the economy gets a decent boost when all the houses need rebuilding every 30 years (Yes I know there are exceptions to this). I wouldn't say that this kind of cultural difference is a good thing, and is really holding Australia back. If we all had the attitude that if something is good enough for everyone else then its good enough for me, well then no good changes would ever come about and the world will stagnate. Why is there so much resistance to progress here?

 

cos that involves whingeing, which is frowned upon....

[flag of convenience]

I have a big house, it's cold in winter, I don't care, it's part of living in Oz, just something that every other Australian lives with for three months of the year, and if they can do it, so can I and I don't moan about it. Cultural difference - just accept it. Put on the ugg boots, got the electric blanket, the heater comes out the garage for three months of the year then goes away again, really what's the big deal.

 

Cultural differece? More slackness and maximising profits. For what they want for houses these days it is a big deal. At least don't leave unfinished constructions. Folk should demand world best standards. .My view is to never just accept things because that's the way it is .....