From glorified tent to glorious home

Renovation is a popular topic for reality TV shows and lifestyle programs like The Block, Better Homes and Gardens, The Living Room and Selling Houses Australia, and after all the time many of us have spent at home lately, it’s understandable we’ve got the urge to glam up the nest.

What the renovation shows don’t often talk about though is just how terrible the majority of Australian homes are when it comes to energy efficiency, feeling comfortable all year round and the impact of materials on our own and the planet’s health.

It’s a missed opportunity in many ways because while new stone benchtops or an ensuite look great, the feeling of not being horrified by power bills has a lot going for it too!

According to researchers, Australian homes are in many cases no better than “glorified tents”, and this has major consequences in terms of illness due to heat and cold.  The causes include lack of insulation, homes that ‘leak’ due to gaps and cracks, windows that don’t block heat or cold, and often a lack of proper shading for summer and free warmth from sunlight in winter.

It’s not only the people inside a home who suffer either - building material choices, construction and energy consumption of our homes are responsible for around 25% of our national carbon emissions. This means that on the one hand, our homes are contributing to climate change escalating, but on the other hand, they are also one of our most awesome opportunities for reducing emissions and making the shift to a low-carbon economy.

There have been plenty of people who say this is all too hard - but here at Evitat, we recognise that every single renovation is an opportunity to make a difference.

At this stage you might be thinking that improving how a home feels - and reducing the energy bills - is only an issue for older properties from the era before LED lights and building codes. But even new homes completed in the past 12 months that achieved the minimum performance specified in State and Territory building codes are often not so great.

According to researchers at RMIT, even new homes built to the current 6 Star NatHERS standard are still below the standard of energy-efficiency and thermal comfort considered an acceptable minimum in many other countries. 

The good news is, improving your home’s performance is not rocket science [though building science does use some of the same physics principles, such as thermodynamics]. If you want to go all-out and do a major renovation that will give you a home that needs almost no heating or cooling, has minimal or even no power bills and uses healthy materials - that’s wonderful! Evitat is here to help you do that. But if you want to start small, maybe even just understand what is possible, here are some ideas! 

Three things you can do right now

1. Rooms that get the most summer sun hitting the glass will be the hottest - planting a deciduous shrub for shade, adding an external waning, or simply hanging blackout curtains will reduce the amount of heat your home gains from those windows in summer.

2. Find where the winter cold seeps in - a lit stick of incense can be used to find gaps and cracks where cold air comes in during winter - just watch which way the smoke moves. For gaps under doors, draught stoppers are fabulous. Gaps around windows can be blocked with some silicone [or something removable like blu tac if you rent]. Windows that are poorly fitted can also have draughts blocked with thick curtains. Cracks in floorboards call for a nice warm rug.

3. The CRC for Low Carbon Living produced a guide for retrofitting existing homes that has some no-cost and low-cost ideas including things renters can do - download the guide here and get inspired!

Keen to learn more? This article published in The Conversation is food for thought: 

Join the journey

Evitat is on a mission to help save the world - one great renovation decision at a time. It’s easy to be part of it - we are about to launch a free renovation app that will give you a free assessment of how sustainable your home is, and how your renovation plans can make it truly awesome. We are also launching an online discussion forum and resources centre for peer-to-peer support and knowledge-sharing, and in the not-too-distant future we’ll have a marketplace of suppliers, consultants and products with verified credentials so you can avoid gimmicks and greenwashing as you make your home glorious!