Wol

It's great for the "feeling", warmth and quiet and I would still have it. But environmentally, when you add up the ongoing replacement costs and energy/materials required I don't think it actually saves money or energy overall.

Kooky.

Fo3, how I feel for you! It was this same week three years ago (hey, I haven't done an Update...nothing to tell really ) that we landed here early in the morning from Singapore. I hardly went out for the next six months but then I would think Sydney gets a lot colder than Perth. How are your cats coping? They'll probably need heatpads.

It does get better year by year, but not much. I'm freezing right now but it's a hell of a lot better in the apartment than it was in the rented cottage. Don't underestimate the effect of your weight loss, either. And don't turn your nose up at snuggies

Do all you can to your house (you've already got a lot of advice, and links from Helen) and, I can say this with hindsight, actually go out more - some days it's warmer out than in.

x

Family of 3

Blimey, I never thought about the cats - they haven't said anything..........

I think a lot of it is psychological - even though I know it gets cold (and I've been in winter) there's a little voice saying "but Australia is HOT".

Plus I've acclimatised to Singapore, and when I've gone back to the UK my parents house is really hot (too hot, if anything) even in winter. So I've got out of the habit of wearing lots of clothes around the house. I AM looking forward to wearing boots etc OUTSIDE the house, just hadn't thought of wearing them INSIDE.

Plus the lovely, light open-plan design that I love is not very draught-friendly. Since I do love the design, and don't want to close up rooms, I'd better get used to it. Thermal linings on the curtains and a big curtain over the front door will be a cost-effective start, and I'll research cavity wall insulation and double glazing. (It also gives me an excuse to buy even more throws). I read something in a UK renovation magazine that some new technology is coming out that combines solar power and solar hot water, so will take my time over that and weigh it all up.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

On a side note, I wonder when most babies are conceived in Oz? Do people do it more in winter as they're cold so go to bed, or are the snuggies, fleecy dressing gowns etc such passion killers that they don't do it at all?!

HelenTD

Yes, a downside of open plan living is that it costs a fortune to have warmth or coolness throughout the house. Ours is an open plan layout, but I'm planning to have doors put on the lounge room, which is the only room we use heating in, to keep it cosy. If we had aircon, I'd probably be shutting doors on rooms that didn't need to be cooled. At some point, if this house ever gets finished inside, we'll also put doors on the study, in the hope that there'll be a quiet-ish place in the house so that I can hear myself think. Noise is the other big issue with open plan designs.

The number of births by month don't seem to have too much variation http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]#Data. I can't see the breakdown by month for each state or territory, so perhaps there is variation between southern and northern Australia.

2009
January 23,408
February 22,746
March 24,577
April 24,069
May 23,830
June 23,615
July 24,625
August 23,452
September 24,240
October 23,748
November 17,992
December 4,381*

* The normal number of births for December has been 19,000-24,000 since 1999, so the figure above for 2009 appears unusual. Perhaps someone can work out the reason why, sometimes variations can occur due to some new Centrelink payment or tax ruling, or something major happening somewhere. Perhaps in March 2009 there was a terrible heatwave and the idea of producing any more heat was just intolerable.

Family of 3

LOL, Helen, you'll soon be rivalling ABC Diamond!

HelenTD

You're right, I should be working on other, more urgent items and allowed myself to get distracted. Where is ACBD anyway?

ozhappy981

You may also want to beef up your ceiling insulation to stop the heat in the rooms escaping into the roof.

You need to measure the width between the ceiling joists first. If your joists are 600mm apart, you can have ceiling insulation batts up to R4.0. In other words, if your current insulation batts are R2.0 you can add another R2.0.

If your joists are 450mm apart, you can have ceiling insulation batts up to R6.0.

It's because of the weight. If you put over R4.0 in the roof when the joists are 600mm apart, you run the risk that the ceiling bows.

You can buy the Bradford batts in Bunnings.

As for external doors: In our rental we had beautiful looking Corinthian doors. But they let in a lot of cold wind . They also didn't seem great on security; I always felt a good kick and you'd be in the house.

In our own house we have uPVC steel doors (outside uPVC, inside is a steel frame) imported from the UK by Perth Double Glazing. There are absolutely no gaps - they have a seal all the way round. They also come with a seven-point locking mechanism. Any thief who tries to kick that one in will be disappointed.