Printable View
Picking grapes, done plenty of that since we were kids here in the sixties.Quote:
Originally Posted by donh54
It was good money, but hot work, and no air conditioned houses to go home to at the end of the day either.
Usually jump in the irrigation channel to cool off on the way home on your sweat-wheels.
Cheers, Mick.
Agreed, but any house built now seems to be built to combat winter, not summer. Here in our area (Mildura) where we get extreme summer temperatures and frosts in the winter, the onus for all these fancy energy rating credits seems to be on keeping houses warm. Houses here now are mostly brick, have little or no eaves, and are heavily insulated. They might be ok for the first day or two of 38C plus degrees, but after that they are hot boxes and rely heavily on air conditioning.Quote:
Originally Posted by gofish
We built our house almost thirty years ago and built it to combat summer and based it to some degree on a mates house on a sheep station near Tilpa. Double brick, ten foot ceilings, ten foot verandahs, decent double doors on all four sides so that there is a breezeway through the place, plus ceiling fans. We didn't need air conditioning, and only fitted it after five years, as I worked shiftwork and my wife decided she didn't feel safe sleeping with only screen doors. So we fitted ducted reverse cycle AC and it hardly has to put in any effort to keep the house cool.
Older houses nearly all had open fireplaces in them and they create a draw on a hot day. When we were building our house it was late in the year and our old cattle dog would head straight for the open fireplace and lay in there where natural convection caused a draught of cool air.
Very easy to see why today we have such a high energy demand in hot weather, once houses weren't air conditioned, then along came Swampies (evaporatives) that were not heavy on power, then the reverse cycle AC which has a far higher power usage.
If I fronted up at Council today with the plans to build a house a house like ours they would probably throw me out the door.
I see on the news a week or so back after the last spike of summer temperatures that the building codes for are going to be reviewed.
On another note, in 2000 the GST (Goods and Services Tax) was introduced by JH and Co, and after the power stations were sold off, the government started getting money for absolutely nothing from electricity customers. If they were serious about reducing power prices, drop the GST on them for households. They must have pulled in megabucks from GST on electricity accounts by now.
Currently 46.1 under our verandah, 4.10 pm.
Cheers, Mick.
Hi,
We were horrified last trip to see new houses with black roofs jammed in so tightly there was no room left for a 750mm overhang.
Barely room to wriggle sideways between the fence and the house.
I guess they are all air conditioned!
No thought at all of solar orientation with either the house or the estate street layout.
Crazy!
Cheers
When I served in Darwin, while waiting for the family to come up, I stayed at Coonawarra. Was invited to homes for dinner, the homes were high set, with louvres all around. Created air flow, no air con. but comfortable enough. Whilst working at Larrakeyah Army barracks before my patrol boat posting, same high set houses with louvres, but all internal walls did not go to the ceiling, once again creating air flow . Must say ceiling fans provided cooling. It worked. Air conditioning seems unnecessary in some circumstances.
Hi,
Strangely enough the Pommy architecture in Malaysia coped with the tropical climate very well.
Large overhangs on the roofs, tall ceilings, louver windows (with bars) ventilation holes high up in the walls and huge bifold doors onto a veranda (again with steel security bars on the secondary door).
Best housing in the RAAF!
Cheers
When we built our house about 14 years ago in Vic - it was considered strange that we asked for eaves... You don’t see many eaves on new houses anymore.
Totally on the money Eevo, never seen it before in the modern privatised era in vic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eevo
Lasted about 90 mins here.
cheers, DL
A bit of a worry IMO as they asked Alcoa to load shed earlier which they did, then still came up a mile short. 2 hot days and we’re screwed...Quote:
Originally Posted by 350RRC
After a bit of looking around it appears there was enough generating capacity available to the grid but not enough capacity in the wires to get it to where it was needed in the 'national market'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Homestar
DL
Had a message from my sister today at Queenscliff,....No power!Quote:
Originally Posted by 350RRC
Pickles.