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“Most houses in Australia are glorified tents,” this is what QUT professor Adrian Barnett declared back in 2015 when explaining
Keeping a poorly insulated house warm can feel, at best, a fruitless exercise and at worse a money-sucking chore.
More people die per capita from the cold in Australia than in Sweden.
How? Swedes are far more prepared for cold temperatures. They have better clothes and keep their homes warm. Temperatures inside a flimsy wooden Queenslander in winter are often below 18°C whereas Swedish homes will be a comfortable 23°C whatever the weather.
If we could lower our cold-related deaths from our current rate of 6.5 per cent to Sweden’s rate of 3.9 per cent, then we’d avoid around 1,200 deaths per year.
So here are a few ways to ward off the cold this winter without breaking the bank.
Cover your holes
Icy drafts can sneak in from the most unexpected places, so this tip involves making your house so airtight that you could take it out to sea.
Buy some door snakes or roll up towels and put them under doors. rubber or foam lined weather seal tape can be extremely useful to plug doorways and windowsills.
Flip it and reverse it
If your fan has a reverse switch then you and science can work together to distribute heat. Flip that bad boy and because heat rises (that’s the science) it’ll push the warm air from your heating system towards the floor.
Don’t have a reverse switch? No problem! Pointing a standalone fan in front of a heater or fireplace will circulate heat and spread the love all around the room.
Rug Up
This one’s pretty easy. Tile and hardwood floors are big ol’ heat leeches so take advantage of those rug places that are always going out of business and stock up on some carpets.
High thread count and wool rugs, while being a bit more expensive, are better insulators and will keep your feet toasty well into winter.
Bonus! Wool rugs are flame resistant so you can pull it up real close to the fire and live all your Bert Reynolds Cosmopolitan shoot fantasies.
Bubble wrap!
If you’re a little more DIY-minded, insulating your windows with bubble wrap . Plus it’ll give your house that chic beehive look.
To insulate with bubble wrap you’ll need a spray bottle full of water and some bubble wrap. Cut the bubble wrap to size, spritz the window thoroughly with water and stick the wrap bubble side up. Then sit back and enjoy that sweet free heat.
When it’s not winter anymore just peel it right off.
Happy winter and keep warm!
