shurilo

Hello!
We are moving to Melbourne next month and I have started to look at the ads for houses we can potentially rent in the area where we want to live. I found that most of them (70% or so) do not have air conditioner. I haven't been there in summer, but I understand it can be really hot. So is it not that bad to live in house without A/C in Melbourne? What is your experiance from hot weather in Melbourne?

Thanks a lot.

Buzzy--Bee

We survived 2 summers in a rental with no aircon. There were probably 5 days a year when it was very uncomfortable and a few more weeks when it would have been a "nice to have". On the really hot days you just draw the blinds to keep the hear out, have the fans on 24/7 and live downstairs because upstairs is too hot!

BB

shurilo

Thanks, it sounds not that bad.

MartinLuther

It depends on the house. If your house has decent eaves then you don't need aircon. Good blackout curtains are much more useful than aircon for the super-hot days.

It only really becomes uncomfortable if you have several super-hot days in a row and that's only happened twice in the 6 summers I've been here. The odd super-hot day is not a problem as the house has not warmed up. Also in Melbourne the super-hot days are usually dry so 40C doesn't feel any worse than 27C on a humid day. And the famous 4-seasons-in-1-day means that in most cases a cool evening comes after a super-hot day. If you open your windows at night then it cools the house down enough to make things comfortable for the next day.

I would recommend aircon in the car though.

Deancm_MKII

Depends on the house but for most air-con is a must. Fans are by and large a waste of time.

I personally would never live in a house again in Melbourne without air-con and i've done many summers without it.

KJCherokee

Two types of aircon are available - reverse cycle and evaporative. In the southern states where humidity is low an evaporative unit is perfectly adequate for cooling but will not provide heat in the winter. Reverse cycle units are more expensive but provide both heating and cooling. Reverse cycle units are more expensive to run, too.

Having said that, we have lived in both Adelaide and Brisbane without a/c and in both states there are only a few days each year when it's actually unpleasant. As long as your house is designed to take advantage of the breezes you should be OK. Shade is important - large deciduous trees on the north and west are great, as is having wide eaves to shade the windows in summer.

Here in Brisbane we spend a huge amount of time out on the deck in summer. There are probably about 5-10 days a year when we say "must get a/c in the bedroom", but other than that we just don't feel the need for it.

PaulandNic

Indeed!

Not Melly, but all the same. We rented a house without air con just the once and swore we'd never do again. The house was facing the wrong way and got NO breezes at all. Summer was a nightmare, yet in current house we went thru the last summer without using the air con in the bedroom once as we get lovely breezes thru it ...

shurilo

Thank you all, I feel much more comfortable already.

I would like to ask what should be the right way for house to get the breeze - if we are talking about East Melbourne (Ringwood/Heathmont).

sassie

We live in Queensland and survive without air conditioning. We have ceiling fans and find thats all we need.