Bordy,
if Badge's wife is like mine, it's her cold feet she warms up on him that has chilled him down when there in bed!

Bye
Mark

WHAT HEATER IN THE BATHROOM

The 9 degs is OK in a house WITH HEATING. Getting out of bed takes a massive amount of courage in our house

AND if one more person says "But you're a pom, you should be used to it" ONE MORE BLOODY PERSON

OK, deep breath.... I'm off to paint, not my hands have thawed fully

I reckon there has got to be a market for manufacturing the double-glazing stuff in the UK and shipping it over here. Probably the people that will buy it are the expats themselves! The houses here (Mel) are just not built for the cold - we can see the ground through some of our floors and of course you see daylight under and between all doors.

Double glazing is ok if you live on top of others and you want to keep your decibels down for the neighbours . . . .but it's more important to insulate the ceiling / roof area well to stop heat loss.
As you're aware, heat goes up, so the obvious place to start conserving heat loss is upward. Pink / Yellow fibreglass batts in the ceiling are all it usually takes.
You'll find hardware stores in Australia are busy as anything on Saturdays, as aussies are great do-it-yourself blokes. The fellahs at the hardware can put you "in the know" as to what to do, and save bulk money by not employing expensive tradesman to do a simple job. It's not rocket science!
Secondly, heat is lost thro' windows. A pelmet over the window and thick curtains will "trap" cool air by the window and keep it there behind the curtain while the rest of the room gets nice and heated on winter nights. Your heating bills will fall
Thirdly, your main problem in Australia is heat . . . in summer.
Buy / build a house facing south (away from the sun!) and put a pergola with grapevines or a verandah on the northern and western sides for shade . . . best protection against heat thro windows. Air conditioning bill will be minimal.
Hope these points make sense.

Interesting one, Badge.

As some may know, we're building in the Western Blue Mountains, which is cool temperate. We're having both double glazing (worth it just for the lack of condensation / mildew / mould, let alone anything else) and underfloor heating. The only problem is the U/F heating - it looks like we'll have to import the stuff to do it (water heated rather than electric wires, and thanks to Timber for the contact details!) from the UK, as Oz seems to be sadly lacking in heating other that wood burners and the odd electric radiator.

Costs of the two types for a 33.3 square (300 sq m) house (from memory, so not exact)
Wires in the slab - $10K ish
Pipes in the slab - (3500 GBP + shipping costs) $9500 ish
Wire mesh radiant mats under timber floors - double the cost $20K
Pipes under timber floors (require heat diffusers, which near double the cost, as only bathrooms and kitchen are slab / tile) 6500 GBP $17550 ish

Advantage of pipes in-slab or underfloor - they can be used to COOL houses during high summer, by running cool water through them..... This doesn't require a cooling unit - a condensing boiler should be enough, if you leave it switched off. That way the water in the boiler is heated during the day, by cooling the pipe water, and the process reverses during the night, so that the house is gently warmed during the colder evenings.

All of the above are EXCLUSIVE of shipping costs / import duty / running costs (fuel) and the biggest cost of all - FITTING!!

I have added nothing for the COMFORT value, which to me is the real reason for looking at this in the first place.

So, the bottom line is: if you intend to live there for the rest of your life (or a major portion) then it's worth it. For a short-term property: forget it.

I agree with the insulation, but NOT fibreglass!! Have you ever tried to remove this stuff? It gets everywhere, and penetrates your skin, and itches intolerably for days afterward! Use rockwool - natural material and no itches!
Disagree with this, too - in SA it's true, but we're talking about cool temperate areas - Vic and mountain areas of NSW: you want to maximise solar gains, so face the house north. Use a 'solar pergola' to shade during summer, and leave open to the sun during winter.

Air-con: get a solar powered, evaporative jobby - it runs only when the sun is shining, but when do you want it otherwise? Installation costs are more than covered by ZERO air-con fuel bills.

I take it thats 12%, IF the wondows fit properly Theres only so much a curtain can hold back

The new upvc d/g windows we have put in the bathroom only cost around $70 extra for the extra pain of glass, so IMO well worth it.
Along with the thick yellow fiberglass that we slotted between the outside walls and the new plaster board, the waterproof villa board, tiling from floor to ceiling and the four burner tastic, i reckon some long cosy nights are to be had, sleeping in the bath. OH, which incedently has a heated spa pump

just as well you made it big enough to sleep 4 then. Thanks guys for all the input to what was a serious question.

B

Hevs,
that sounds like a nice bathroom

I presume that you did it all yourself?

Bye
Mark

Great Idea - Do you have any links for this?
Thanks

Here's the first link off Google.... (that was a hint )

http://www.coolmax.mx.com.au/coolmax/coolsolar.htm

Thanks. You're right - that was the first link from Google which I had already seen. I thought that you had some specific type in mind which you had used/more info on.

But of course (well except for the plumbing in of the new stuff and replacing the walls that we smashed in ) And it is lovely and will be even nicer when the painting and tiling are finished

Badge,4??? what the !*^& are you implying:scared:

(Banging on again!)

My oil bills are about £400 pa, and on the figures someone else posted (above) the windows account for 12% of the heat loss. Assuming that double glazing ELIMINATED that loss completely, the saving in cash terms would be - £48pa.

If you have to replace at least all the south facing (UK) double glazed units every 15 years at a cost of say £1300................ well, no contest!

And thats in addition to the initial costs!

Hi Marco

No - I'll be contructing my own. I had an evaporative cooling air-con when I was a kid living in Mt Isa, so I know the principles, and you can get DIY plans off the web.

The VoltCommissar has some good ideas...

http://www.voltscommissar.net/competitive_edge.htm

It's just a case of getting the PV cells, motors and pump to synch. Basically the more power you have, the bigger the motor you can use.... Nice little project for me!