Debon Dwyer

THE HOME

Sylvia’s home is situated in a wonderful north western facing location opposite Lake Weeroona. The home has spectacular sunsets over the Lake that can be seen from the lounge. At 88 years young Sylvia doesn’t like sitting around much, so she keeps herself busy going for walks and working in the garden. When indoors, Sylvia spends most of her time in the lounge room, kitchen or sewing room. 

There is an extension on the home with lots of doors and a 30 years old air conditioner that she believes isn’t effective. She leaves the doors open during the day to let the air conditioner try to cool the whole home.

“Once it gets hot it stays hot and it
doesn’t cool down very quickly …

Even the carpet gets red hot.”

THE CHALLENGES

Unlike its occupant, Sylvia’s home is showing its age. Doors no longer close properly and there are leaks in the roof. The western orientation of the home is a real challenge.

Sylvia used to have external blinds that made her home much cooler but they were taken down when they become inoperable and were not replaced. Sylvia has made her own temporary curtains at the front of the house to try to stop the heat.

Air conditioning does not work because of inadequate zoning. Draught proofing the property is an challenge because of the fresh air supply needed for the gas heater. Most of the western facing bedroom windows do not open; and as the one window that does faces the road. Sylvia doesn’t feel safe to have it open at night.

THE SOLUTIONS

Two actions were taken to help Sylvia cope with heat waves – cooling her bedroom down at night and then reducing the heat load in the lounge room. External shading was installed to eliminate the sun strike on the lounge room and Sylvia’s bedroom.

Draught proofing was done to reduce the heat ingress from the west but without increasing the fresh air intake for the gas heater.

Sylvia’s home could be much cooler if internal doors were closed during the day to stop the heat from migrating through the home and opened at night to allow the cooling breeze to cool the home down.  Clearly that advice needs to support Sylvia’s need to feel safe in her home.

THE HOME:

This small weatherboard cottage in Maryborough is home to Rosemarie, where she lives with her husband and their “very spoilt” pooch! The home is oriented on the block of land so that the front of the home faces south, which makes the rooms  at the front of the home naturally cooler in the summer time. 

The back of the home contains the kitchen, laundry and living areas. The kitchen is north east facing and has a large window to the east, which lets in the lovely, bright morning light in winter. However, it also means that the home is already starting to heat up from early in the morning in summertime, making it difficult to keep cool throughout the day.

THE CHALLENGES:

The north western side of the home is the lounge room and office, which becomes very hot in summer. There has been an external awning blind in place for years, but due to the difficulty in operating it, it had not been used until this year.  Someone kindly came to assist Rosemarie to lower the external awning blind in summer, which was excellent. However, Rosemarie had since been unable to raise it during winter, meaning she was missing out on the lovely warming winter sun.

During heatwaves, Rosemarie is fortunate to have her bedroom facing south. The open window allows a cool breeze to flow through, so there are no problems sleeping during the hot weather. The back of the house is north facing and this is where the problem is during those long hot days.

“… The area that worries me is the heat that comes in
off the back verandah. The heat just knocks you.”

The northern verandah catches all the heat and concentrates it into back of the home which, unfortunately, is where Rosemarie spends most of her day. Because of the positioning of the windows (kitchen to the east and lounge room to the west) and lack of manageable shading makes daily living in the home quite uncomfortable. Rosemarie closes the central door facing the kitchen and laundry to try to keep the heat at bay and there is an air conditioner in the lounge room window.

THE SOLUTIONS:

Stopping the sun from hitting the glass makes an enormous difference to the comfort of Rosemarie’s home, so installing external blinds to the pergola and kitchen window (that can be easily managed by Rosemarie) was the top priority. Thorough draught proofing of the kitchen door and the front door was also important as these poorly fitted, rattling doors showed gaps around all the edges. The existing draught proofing had come off because the floor was not level, rising where the door opens.

ecoMaster’s range of draught proofing products ensured that the  correct products were chosen and installed to last, ensuring Rosemarie and her family enjoy  a much more comfortable home all year round.

“The program is very good .”

 

THE HOME:

This home belongs to a three person family: Dawn, David and Linden. Their triple fronted brick veneer home with a tiled roof is very typical of 1960s. There are eaves all the way around the home and a pergola to the north west. 

The living room is on the south side so it is cooler for summer. Dawn is in the living room most of the time, sitting in the chair she loves with all her special things about her. There is evaporative cooling with six outlets that keep the living room cool when the humidity is low. However, in high humidity, the evaporative cooler is not effective. The kitchen is on the north western side of the home with large windows on both external walls.

All three bedrooms are on the east side, so they get the morning sun and they don’t heat up in the afternoon. They are protected to an extent by blow in wool insulation and fibreglass batts in their ceiling and, on the positive side, the north east facing main bedroom retains the heat in the winter. But in summertime, once the whole house gets hot, it gets really hot with its brick walls holding the heat all day and all night, giving the family no reprieve from those uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous temperatures.

THE CHALLENGES:

The kitchen is easily the hottest room; it has an external pergola with a green tinted roof. Due to its construction it retains the heat building up underneath it and pushes that heat directly into the kitchen. The evaporative cooler is the furthest away from the kitchen, so the kitchen does not get any cooling benefit at all.

“… it takes a while for the house to get hot, but once it does, it gets really hot.”

 

Because of the type of gas heating in the home, it was not possible to thoroughly draught proof the home, this is because in order to operate gas heating  safely, you must have a source of  ventilation  available.

The type of insulation in this home allows it to have a cooler start at the beginning of a heatwave but once it gets hot, it unfortunately it also traps the heat inside. Some draught proofing been attempted by the family in the past but it was not effective at all.

THE SOLUTIONS:

To ensure the safety of Dawn and her family, who will continue to use their gas heating in winter, the ecoMaster team’s focus was on shading and zoning out hot areas. To significantly reduce the heat in the kitchen, reflective screens were installed on both windows as well as in the laundry and under the external covered pergola. In addition two external blinds were installed to reduce the direct sun strike on the home.

ecoMaster fitted perimeter seals to the front door, zoned off wet areas from the rest of the home (such as the bathroom and the toilet), adjusted the back door draught seal so that it worked properly, sealed wall vents and treated gaps and cracks that were at a safe distance from the family’s gas heating.

THE HOME:

This beautiful, large and stately home in Charlton is home to Agnes and Graham. It is tucked away from the Calder Highway in a quiet location, benefiting from the shade of large eucalyptus trees on the eastern street frontage.

In addition to the majestic eucalyptus trees to the east, there is also deep shading of the verandah on that side where the bay windows are situated. To the north each window has a protective hood to prevent direct sun strike and there is also a reasonable level of plantings that shades those windows. To the west there is very large enclosed back verandah that shields the home from the western sun. The kitchen is located on the north west corner, which is reasonably well protected.

Agnes and Graham live mostly in the large protected lounge room. They have air conditioning in the living room for the summer time and have a slow combustion stove and electric heaters for the extremely cold winters. Overall, they are quite well setup from the worst of Australia’s extreme weather conditions … that is, except for flooding.

“… Overall they are pretty well setup from the worst of Australia’s extreme weather conditions

… that is, except for flooding .”

THE CHALLENGES:

As this home is set very low to the ground, it has the potential to be flooded and, indeed, it has been flooded twice already. While the direct impact of flooding has been dealt with and the home has been restored, the moisture has made the floors quite uneven and there are extensive gaps and cracks around skirting boards, bay windows and between skirting boards and the floor. There huge gaps to be found between the kitchen and back verandah wall, allowing lots of room for draught to compromise the couple’s comfort and the effectiveness of their winter heating and summer cooling, which can be costly.

The front and back doors as well as the living rooms’ doors are very draughty. The lounge room has a number of highly ventilated wall vents that are no longer required and allow air to flow in and out freely. There is also a west facing window that they feel lets in significant heat in the summer time. To access the kitchen, Agnes and Graham need to traverse the enclosed back verandah which has an un-insulated tin roof, making the back verandah extremely hot and uncomfortable to spend time in.

THE SOLUTIONS:

The key to making this home more comfortable in summer (and will provide significant winter benefit too) was to thoroughly draught proof with long lasting, quality products. The best result can only be achieved here when looking beyond the obvious sources of draught and taking the whole-home approach that ecoMaster is known for.

The front and back doors were draught proofed as well as the living room doors and significant gap sealing was undertaken throughout the home. The closeable metal wall vents where closed firmly. A blind was installed on the west facing window on the verandah to reduce the heat load on the home and on Agnes and Graham themselves, who will enjoy a much more comfortable home for years to come.

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