Yeah, but i bet they didn't compare it to the fact that the wages are less and i bet they didn't add on all of the extras you have to pay for overhere. Yep!! Loaded me

Second hit on Goggle - 'heating costs site:.uk':

Powergen - Annual Cost of Whole House Heating

No cost for cooling provided.

Sorry NKSK, I'll keep repeating it ad nauseum - you can heat your home when it gets cold in Australia and just like the UK you can choose to wear warmer clothes when it gets cold as well! And it does get cold! Australia is not located on the equator!

Little bit of fun and games - the Energy House simulator.

The figures involved are not exact, but act as a rough comparison of the effectiveness of different types of insulation.

The currency you choose also determines the ambient (outside) temperature for the whole program, and uses the average temperature for the capital city of that currency's country:

US dollars = Washington DC
Australian dollars = Canberra
British pounds = London
Canadian dollars = Ottawa
Euros = Brussels
Japanese yen = Tokyo

Conserving energy in a house - help file

Energy House - the simulator

Reasonably well insulated:
Loss for Canberra = 681 J; loss for London = 2988 J.

Looks like bull but: loss figures should be Joules / sec I would have thought.

So winters are liveable then?

I've been telling the wife - "they're wearing two jumpers, quilts, dressing gowns over clothes. Ice on the inside of the windows" etc etc. :scared:

When we get there either we'll be really well prepared from reading this forum or we'll be ecstatically happy because it's not as bad as I thought! I've focused on every bit of doom and gloom and told the wife so that's she's prepared for the absolutely shit time we're going to have to endure for two years.

It's got to the stage when we're already looking forward to moving on from Australia after two years - and we haven't even left the UK yet.

It's funny, we left the UK in late 1999 for SE Asia. Very very different lifestyle to the UK, a strongly Muslim country (neither of us are muslim so the cultural difference was substantial), equatorial - so high humidity and high temperatures. We left the UK with two months' notice and with little apprehension at all. We just saw it as an adventure, moaned a bit about some things but generally just accepted the culture and stayed for 5 years.

I've had about a year's preparation for this move and this forum has been a blessing and a curse. I'm filled with apprehension. And I'm really hoping that the negatives have just been so overblown (in my own mind as well as some posters) that I can come back on the forum in 6 months time and just be positive!

I just wish that those posters who are clearly unhappy with Australia just accept that it wasn't for them, get off their arses and leave.

I seem to be only talking about the weather these days...
And it might seem like I'm whinging, and I am, but I actually don't feel that bad or surprised about the cold as I'm coming across I think.
I just like talking about the weather for some stupid reason, and what I'm really also doing is making people aware that it can get this cold(cos yes, a lot seem totally unaware that it will for some reason....).

Now, about heating. We are in a rental. We can't install reverse cycle air or anything else. Gas heater stinks, not going to buy a new one(as far as I know would cost at least $500, and might not use it when we buy our own house. Don't want electric blankets, can't be healthy I reckon. So we're left with hot water bottles, an electric heater on sometimes(not all the time. Cost might be small, but if we don't save on things like this, all the little things, we wouldn't be able to afford our own house soon)) and lots of clothes. Getting in and about of bed is the main thing that's uncomfortable, and the bathroom, but well, it's all of our own choice(sort of) of course, so we can't complain, but still do. Because it is different to The Netherlands in this case. There every house we ever had had central heating, here it is not the case, and the cost would be very high to put it in, and we wouldn't put it in in a rental anyway.
So yeah, I guess it's where your priorities lie, and the cold isn't where ours are, because it's not like we're dying or getting frostbite or anything, most of the time we don't even feel cold. But yeah, still talk about it sometimes though. But's it's usually more along the lines of 'oh wow, it's the coldest June in 70 years'. Well.... in my case anyway

Now of home in my centrally heated car, though won't turn it up too high, costs more petrol. Would rather just put more clothes on!
THen change into warmer clothes in my 10 degree house, rug up, and then maybe put the little electric heater on (that won't hardly help, because of all the ventilation holes in the walls, the spaces under doors, and the doorways with no holes(hanging blankets up there...). We're in a rental so it won't change. Buy a house you say: yes, well, that's why we're saving aren't we?!
Right, enough whinging for today

Ah, that explains it: your whinge filter is stuffed.

Are you sure you aren't British ?

he he. Not only poms can whinge

Actually, it's not just talking about the weather I like(cos in 'real life' I hardly talk about the weather, other than the odd comment), it's more that I'm interested in the weather, I like knowing if we have extremes, want to know what those 'tornadoe' things we had were, etc etc.

Right, so now I'm home (it's not 10 degrees in here, it's actually 12, oohhhhh, it's soooo warm!!!!)....

Jad n Rich: you say 4 and 48 = extreme. You are talking night and day. If we do that for, ie Holland (not that much difference with south east UK):
-20 versus 35.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
And as others have said, not even 1% on this forum will ever live in an area where it ever gets to 48, let alone reguraly!!
0 degrees is an extreme night time temp for Perth in winter, 41 is an extreme summer day temp here.

There have been quite a few(to many, but not everyone does a search before they post a new thread) threads on the weather lately, especially Perth, but that is because it has been a bit extreme here(we've had about our total rainfall for winter already, and it's the coldest June in 77 years).


Now I was thinking about something else: I find it hot in the summer(sometimes), and cold in the winter(sometimes)(and have always said I'd whinge about it, I know myself, and WA), but of course it's not extremer to what I've been used too. But, then I can say: here the houses aren't fitted with heating, have single windows, air coming under doors, open plan area's etc. But then: you can change all this. It does cost a lot of money though, and yes (sometimes!!) the houses are a bit cheaper, but not always these days.

Anyway, that's me thinking out loud.

Oh, and about the original post: don't move out here just for the weather. You might love it, but I would think you'd need to know for sure that you'll love other things about Australia before you make a permanent move, especially if you've got kids, I think the risk is too big not to know for sure.

Why not?

Unless you have some kind of special heater fitted in your car, I think you will find it costs no more petrol to have the heater turned up high. Most car heaters work on the principle of directing waste heat from the engine to the passenger compartment. Cooling your car in the summer is a different matter as Air Con involves running a compressor and that takes power from the engine (hence fuel).

Cheers,

DagBoy

Dear NKSK,

I dont know where you are heading to, but I can tell you what its like here in Brisbane. Yes, winters here are liveable, I dont know of anyone who has perished of hypothermia in their homes for a couple of years now at least . Winter days here are generally around 20 degrees (celcius, in case you were thinking that that may have been a little chilly ) & evenings get down to single figures when its cold. Until last week it was still in the mid teens (minimum temp, usually the last hour before dawn) at night, it has now dropped & is in single figures as it is for about 2-3 months during winter. Never seen ice on the inside of the windows (or the outside for that matter!) & cant remember when we last ever had a frost.

The problem occurs when people from the UK come here & somehow expect it to be 25 degrees year round. Its not. We have a season here called winter. The next problem arises when migrants from the UK expect houses here to have central heating. They dont. Australians here in Brisbane heat their homes using electric heaters. Close the doors, pull the blinds & curtains, put on a fleece & turn the heater on. Considering that it is only cold enough to need heating in the evenings for 2-3 months of the year explains why central heating really doesnt strike most Aussies in Brisbane as a high priority. Please dont throw away all your warm clothes thinking that you will never need to wear more than a pair of speedos or a bikini again, cos you will be surprised that in fact 10 degrees here is the same as 10 degrees in the UK - you will need a jumper!

I have lost track of the number of people who used to read this forum before they moved here but now they are here say how things on here are blown so out of proportion. Lost track of the amount of times Im told "Dont know where some of those posters live, but its not the same Australia that I live in" .

Its a different country, of course things taste different, things are done differently, there are different rules & you wont be able to buy Walkers crisps in the local supermarket. If you dont come to Australia expecting the UK with sunshine or the equivilent (weather & otherwise) of your annual holiday in Spain, Im pretty sure you will be OK . Believe it or not, despite what you read on this forum, there are actually lots of people who live here that love it .

Come & try it - you might even find you like it .

Dagboy - you should be a teacher my dear boy! My car's AC is a bit ineffective - only gets going on a run - my wife's car has ice cold AC but the rad core is blocked (the diagnosis - could be wrong) - so hers only gets hot down the floor wells not screen - bugger in the mornings.

The upshot is that her car is great in summer - mine is best in winter.

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Because it's not good to sleep with it on, I'm sure
And if you only have it on before you get in: it doesn't solve the undressing bit, and for the cold bed you might as well use a hot water bottle, cheaper.


Ah, ok, that's ok then. Still, would rather just put more clothes up, the dry hot heat isn't exactly good for skin and hair etc.
And the difference with outside is too big.....

Very eloquent MrsD.
Did Dagboy write that for you ?


DUCK

LOL you'll keep til next time you visit Bixy .