staying balmy

[John Browning]

Reading through the recent posts on the difficulties people have keeping their houses warm...

 

 

It occurs to me that New Chums aren't complaining about the weather so much (-after all, it rarely gets below 12 to 15C during the day in Adelaide, and hardly ever much lower than 5C at night). .....Balmy in comparison with Melbourne and Canberra, Hobart and Alice Springs

 

Perhaps what people are missing is the lack of Central Heating?

 

You might want to try these two tips....

 

1) that Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner can be quite expensive to run all evening as your main source of heat

 

However, most of them can be programmed to switch on late afternoon for a couple of hours, before you get home. This will give you a very cheap source of background warmth, and make a big difference on your home coming.

 

2) most ceiling fans can be switched to a very gentle reverse motion.....just enough to flick the pool of warm air near the ceiling back down to where it is needed, but without causing a draft

 

 

- Try it and tell me it's not cheaper

 

John B

[Sallyh]

I definitely miss central heating. But find it ok during the day. Been here 9 years this September. In a college house with only one heater in the kitchen ???? ( hello, kitchen???!). It's a gas heater. Wasn't cold at all in the last house.

 

No reverse cycle and no ceiling fans.have also read about the reverse motion fan trick.

 

We're just wasting gas rather than buying any more electric heaters, and have to leave the heater on overnight so that the kids on the top floor don't freeze. Calculated risk seems to be going ok.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[John Browning]

yes I use gas for my main space heating in the evening

 

....but don't forget to ask the land lord (-the college-) for an annual check...a blocked flu can ramp up the carbon monoxide levels without you being aware of anything.

 

JB

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

I have a mixture of gas and electric heating but the brick houses are difficult to heat...takes a while for them to hold their heat.

 

Smoke alarms now come with a combination smoke / carbon monoxide detector which would be a good idea for any gas appliance (especially unflued). I have started to replace alarms with the combos.

 

If you have roller shutters and the house faces the right direction you can trap in any sunlight (what sunlight!) / heat and close them at night.