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Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mea podcast. Mumma Mea acknowledges

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Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast

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Speaker 1: is recorded on.

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Speaker 2: Hi.

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Speaker 3: I'm Grace Ruvervey from Muma MEA's daily news podcast to

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Speaker 3: the Quickie. Winter has well and truly arrived, at least

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Speaker 3: here in Sydney. It's feeling very cold outside, but sometimes

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Speaker 3: it feels like it could be colder inside a house.

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Speaker 3: Did you know that eighteen degrees is the minimum temperature

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Speaker 3: for indoors as designated by the World Health Organization, and

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Speaker 3: a lot of houses do not meet that requirement, forcing

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Speaker 3: us all to get heaters that are increasing our energy bills.

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Speaker 3: But before we warm up a little bit, here's Claire

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Speaker 3: Murphy with today's headlines.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Grace. Convicted criminal but now a free man, Juliana

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Speaker 1: sand has spent his first night back home here in Australia.

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Speaker 1: He touched down on home soil last night, emerging from

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Speaker 1: the charter plane with a smile on his face, fist

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Speaker 1: pumping the air and hugging and kissing his family. His wife,

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Speaker 1: Stella spoke to the media saying her husband was not

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Speaker 1: ready to face the press just yet, asking for space

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Speaker 1: for them to be a family before he speaks at

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Speaker 1: a time of his choosing, after twelve years fighting extradition,

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Speaker 1: first to Sweden and then the US, years spent hold

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Speaker 1: up in the Ecuadorian embassy and then in a high

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Speaker 1: security prison in London, Assigns chose to plead guilty to

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Speaker 1: one charge, which, with time served, meant he was free

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Speaker 1: to walk from the US court in Saipan yesterday. The

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister has warned that an opposition proposal to build

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Speaker 1: seven nuclear reactors risks further delays to Australia's energy transition

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Speaker 1: and would undermine certainty for business and industry. Mister Albinizi

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Speaker 1: will make the statements in a speech today where he'll

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Speaker 1: outline that the cost and time it will take to

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Speaker 1: build the reactors would meet another decade preventing action on

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Speaker 1: the climate and the investment in energy needed now, saying

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Speaker 1: Australia has every resource imaginable to succeed in this decisive decade,

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Speaker 1: critical minerals, rare, Earth's skills and space and sunlight the

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Speaker 1: trade ties to our region. The only thing he's see,

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Speaker 1: says our nation does not have is time to waste.

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Speaker 1: The coalition has come under fire for not revealing the

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Speaker 1: cost of the nuclear reactors while indicating the first would

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Speaker 1: only be able to come online by twenty thirty five.

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Speaker 1: Just days after getting under the skin of former US

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Speaker 1: swimmer Michael Phelps, Ossie Kate Campbell has retired from swimming

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Speaker 1: after failing to make the Paris Olympic team. The thirty

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Speaker 1: two year old was vying to become the first Australian

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Speaker 1: swimmer to race at five Olympic Games, but the four

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Speaker 1: time gold medalist missed out on selection in both the

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty meter freestyle events at the trials

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Speaker 1: in Brisbane, making her retirement official in an emotional Instagram post, saying,

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Speaker 1: after over twenty years, over thirty five thousand kilometers, over

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Speaker 1: nineteen million strokes, four Olympics, eight Olympic medals, seven World records,

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Speaker 1: and countless memories, It's time to officially say goodbye. Just

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Speaker 1: last week, Michael Phelps was shown Campbell's comments calling the

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Speaker 1: US team sore losers, to which he said if someone

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Speaker 1: had told him that, he would make them eat every

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Speaker 1: word they just said about him. Campbell hit back, saying

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Speaker 1: who knew the comments made in jest could have stirred

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Speaker 1: up so much trouble, but that the rivalries in sport

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Speaker 1: is what makes it great. A bridget and Sibling has

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Speaker 1: joined a new Ossie TV show, which is filming in Sydney.

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Speaker 1: Florence Hunt, who plays the eighth and youngest Bridgitton sibling

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Speaker 1: Hiacynth in the Netflix show, has joined the cast of

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Speaker 1: the show Mixtape and You've Bin' Original, saying she knew

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Speaker 1: it was going to be special the moment she got

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Speaker 1: the script. For the audition. She'll appear alongside Australian actress

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Speaker 1: Theresa Palmer and British actor Jim Sturgis. Florence playing the

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Speaker 1: younger version of Palmer's character as a story unfolds about

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Speaker 1: her relationship in the past and present. The story is

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Speaker 1: an adaptation of Jane Sanderson's novel where the couple who

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Speaker 1: end up living in different countries reconnect over songs.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Claire Coming Up, we learn why houses are so

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Speaker 3: cold and how to heat them without breaking the bank.

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Speaker 3: Australia is known for extreme temperatures. Summers bring extreme heat,

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Speaker 3: with temperatures reaching well into the forties, bringing summer experiments

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Speaker 3: like cooking a fried egg on your driveway.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to book the egg Sanday car under today's

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Speaker 1: Jim prisons forty for dig Shelsiers.

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Speaker 4: Boy, it's hard in Australia.

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Speaker 5: He blody, oath mate, careful for the seat belt.

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Speaker 4: Sho'll be hotter than a four and twenty straight out

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Speaker 4: of the oven.

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Speaker 3: I hope that feeling has warmed you up a bit,

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Speaker 3: because now we're going to talk about why it's so cold.

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Speaker 3: I grew up in a regional town and I quite

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Speaker 3: like to pride myself on dealing with the cold. Pretty

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Speaker 3: accustomed to frost in the morning, frozen over bird baths,

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Speaker 3: or having to pour warm water on the windshield of

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Speaker 3: the car before you can even drive. But over the

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Speaker 3: past week I have found myself needing extra doooner's wooly socks,

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Speaker 3: hugging a heat pack and using a water bottle. Just

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Speaker 3: this past week, Sydney and Melbourne experienced their chilliest mornings

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Speaker 3: of the year, with loads of six point five degrees

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Speaker 3: celsius and one point four degrees celsius respectively. Days earlier,

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Speaker 3: Central Queensland had its iciest night at five point six

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Speaker 3: degrees celsius. The sunny state even waking up to a

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Speaker 3: coating of covering the ground. Whilst there are many jokes

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Speaker 3: about how Australians are completely taken aback with winter every

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Speaker 3: single year when the temperatures suddenly drop, the cold snap

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Speaker 3: this year has started a different conversation, just one simple question, Actually,

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Speaker 3: why are houses in Australia so damn cold?

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Speaker 6: The most messed up part about living in Australia is

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Speaker 6: that people genuinely say to me, oh, you're Canadian, so

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Speaker 6: you shouldn't be able to feel the cold, when I

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Speaker 6: can confidently tell you that the call is that I

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Speaker 6: have ever been is living in a Melbourne sharehouse in

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Speaker 6: the middle of July and lying in my own bed

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Speaker 6: trying to fall asleep, being able to see my own

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Speaker 6: breath while only being able to warm myself with a

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Speaker 6: tiny space heater and an electric blanket. Like, I don't

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Speaker 6: know why everyone in Australia was like, let's not inflate

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Speaker 6: our houses. Let's all have put on a Catman dou

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Speaker 6: jacket and call it a day.

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Speaker 3: Despite advancements in home heating technology and insulation, many people

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Speaker 3: still struggle to keep their homes warm during the cold months,

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Speaker 3: at times even walking outside to find it's warmer in

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Speaker 3: a bid to curb the chill. Will often get cheap

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Speaker 3: electric heaters that run up electricity bills, but with poor

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Speaker 3: house insulation, it does little to actually keep the home warm.

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Speaker 3: Senior lecturer at r MIT, doctor Nikola Willand said homes

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Speaker 3: in Australia are poorly insulated with inefficient heaters, heat just

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Speaker 3: dissipates out, so even though you may be heating, you

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Speaker 3: don't really feel the room warming up. That was especially

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Speaker 3: so for homes built before the nationwide House Energy Rating

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Speaker 3: scheme was introduced in two thousand and four. But it's

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Speaker 3: not just financial problems from using heaters. Being cold can

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Speaker 3: cause significant health issues like high blood pressure, common colds,

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Speaker 3: heart attacks, pneumonia, and sleep deprivation. It's a serious issue,

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Speaker 3: so serious that the World Health Organization brought in official

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Speaker 3: recommendations for indoor house temperatures to be high enough to

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Speaker 3: protect residents from the harmful health effects of the cold,

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Speaker 3: with eighteen degrees celsius proposed as the safe and well

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Speaker 3: balanced indoor temperature. The reality is many homes still fall

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Speaker 3: below that eighteen degrees.

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Speaker 2: It is so cold in my house that when I'm working,

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Speaker 2: I have to take breaks to warm up my hands,

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Speaker 2: which sounds so bad, but my fingers actually turn purple.

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Speaker 2: I also am a plant mum of various plants. I

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Speaker 2: have to take them outside each day just so they

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Speaker 2: can warm up. As a point, mumb that makes me

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Speaker 2: really sad because they're all dying.

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Speaker 4: I am not okay. I'm also trying to attribute the

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Speaker 4: coldness of my house to the floorboards, bad insulation, and

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Speaker 4: not wanting to put the heat on in the thirty

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Speaker 4: minutes it takes me to get ready before I leave

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Speaker 4: the house.

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Speaker 3: So why does some homes retain heat? And how can

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Speaker 3: we warm ourselves and our home without a scary power bill?

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Speaker 3: Jenny Edwards, often referred to as Genegy Efficiency, is the

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Speaker 3: director of Scientists Lighthouse Architecture and Science and one half

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Speaker 3: of the Fixed Chicks duo Jenny. In the bathroom of

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Speaker 3: my rental property that I live, there is a part

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Speaker 3: of the window that's just like there's no option to

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Speaker 3: close that window as it just doesn't exist. Am I

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Speaker 3: destined to just have a cold home forever?

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Speaker 5: Possibly? Do you have an exhaust fan in that bathroom? I?

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Speaker 5: Do you do? Okay? So in that case, you can

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Speaker 5: actually just get a piece of cardboard or some strong

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Speaker 5: tape and tape up that permanent vent in the window.

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Speaker 5: You don't need it. It's serving no function with some ventilation,

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Speaker 5: but it's just keeping you cold. At the moment, it.

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Speaker 4: Is keeping me cold.

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Speaker 3: Can we talk about why houses are so cold? And

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Speaker 3: if the new laws and how we built houses changed

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Speaker 3: in two thousand and four, what's been done to the

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Speaker 3: houses that were built prior.

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Speaker 5: Insulation wasn't used in houses until the late eighties and

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Speaker 5: early nineties, so that's one big thing. So most Australian

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Speaker 5: homes aren't insulated well since then. Houses have had ceiling

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Speaker 5: insulation at least, but wall insulation didn't become common until

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Speaker 5: the nineties, so that's the biggest problem in Australian homes.

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Speaker 5: Existing homes, a lot of them simply aren't insulated, so

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Speaker 5: they're not wrapped up and cozy like when we put

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Speaker 5: on our wooly jumpers. It's the same with our houses.

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Speaker 5: Houses built to code these days should be much much

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Speaker 5: more comfortable. There are still some issues with the design

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Speaker 5: of those houses. They tend to be big and open

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Speaker 5: plan and perhaps not constructed as well as intended, so

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Speaker 5: they might not perform as efficiently or as comfortably as

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Speaker 5: people expect. The big message we want to get across

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Speaker 5: with fixed Chicks is that in an existing home, there

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Speaker 5: are lots of simple things you can do to really

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Speaker 5: improve your comfort, because it's not just about saving the energy.

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Speaker 5: That's really important, and we want to help people save

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Speaker 5: on their bills, but improving your comfort and your health

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Speaker 5: is really really important.

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Speaker 3: A lot of people, when they're cold, they're going to

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Speaker 3: reach for a heater first, and we don't necessarily need

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Speaker 3: a heater to keep us warm, but if we were

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Speaker 3: going to go to that option, what are some energy

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Speaker 3: efficient options.

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Speaker 5: Look, a lot of people have got a reverse cycle

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Speaker 5: air conditioner on them wall that they tend to think

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Speaker 5: of as something they use over summer to cool them down.

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Speaker 5: The great news is that you can use those in

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Speaker 5: winter to heat. So if you've got a split system

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Speaker 5: on your wall but you've been using other forms of heating,

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Speaker 5: the first thing is use your reverse cycle air conditioner.

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Speaker 5: They're actually incredibly efficient. If you don't have one of those,

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Speaker 5: then you want something that's definitely got a thermostat and

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Speaker 5: a timer, and you want to think carefully about the

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Speaker 5: parts of your house that you heat, don't try and

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Speaker 5: heat the whole thing. Try and zone sections down and

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Speaker 5: list and I fix it ticks are really keen on

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Speaker 5: encouraging people to heat themselves. So those heated throw rugs

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Speaker 5: are actually incredibly effective. They use very little energy, but

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Speaker 5: if you toss one of those around you while you're

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Speaker 5: sitting on the couch, they keep you incredibly comfortable and

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Speaker 5: you don't have to heat the whole space, just heat you.

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Speaker 3: One of the things that you talk about on the

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Speaker 3: Instagram is a big difference between gas and electric heating options, which.

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Speaker 5: Is better electric. There's actually no reason to be on

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Speaker 5: gas these days. Electric appliance can do everything that gas does.

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Speaker 5: Gas is much less efficient. Here in Camber, loads of

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Speaker 5: people are on gas central heating because we thought it

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Speaker 5: was the clean green thing twenty years ago. And gas

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Speaker 5: is still cheaper per unit than electricity, but the electrical

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Speaker 5: appliances use so much less energy they are still cheaper.

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Speaker 5: So I really encourage people to plan for that transition

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Speaker 5: to because it will take time to move off gas

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Speaker 5: heating on gas cooking and gas hot water, but planned

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Speaker 5: for it because it's incredibly cost effective in the long run.

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Speaker 5: But the other thing we haven't talked about much is

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Speaker 5: the draft seedling.

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Speaker 3: I was just about to ask about rafting good.

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Speaker 5: Not at all sexy. You know, people when they talk

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Speaker 5: about energy efficiency, they tend to think of solar panels

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Speaker 5: on the roof and double glazing, and I love those things,

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Speaker 5: but we really want to reinforce that it's the far

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Speaker 5: less sexy things of insulation and draft ceiling that will

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Speaker 5: give you the huge bang for buck in terms of

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Speaker 5: energy efficiency and improved comfort. So draft ceiling is about

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Speaker 5: just sealing up all those random gaps and cracks in

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Speaker 5: the outside shell of your home. So that permanent gap

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Speaker 5: in your bathroom window that you talked about is a

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Speaker 5: classic tape it up. If you've got an exhaust fan,

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Speaker 5: use that exhaust fan to extract the moist air. That's

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Speaker 5: the important thing. But you don't need that permanent vent,

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Speaker 5: so close it up to keep you cozier. And then

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Speaker 5: look at your doors and the windows or the classics

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Speaker 5: that have gaps around doors. They're all quite easy to

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Speaker 5: fix and they will make a huge, huge difference to

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Speaker 5: your comfort level. And we find that draft ceiling we

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Speaker 5: can reduce the amount of air leakage in a house

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Speaker 5: by twenty or thirty percent, and generally that correlates directly

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Speaker 5: to winter energy use. So if you seal up the

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Speaker 5: drafts and reduce the air leakage by twenty percent, your

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Speaker 5: bills will drop by twenty percent as well. So it's

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Speaker 5: really cheap, easy stuff and makes a big, big difference.

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Speaker 5: I wanted to chat about bubble wrap. A lot of

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Speaker 5: people are dreaming about getting double glazing in their home

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Speaker 5: and realizing it's quite expensive. So I want people to

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Speaker 5: realize that bubble wrap is the most cost effective way

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Speaker 5: to double glaze your windows. It might not look quite

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Speaker 5: as sexy, but it is incredibly effective. You put it

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Speaker 5: on the inside of your window. A spray of water

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Speaker 5: with a little bit of detergent is actually enough to

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Speaker 5: make it stick to your window, and then effectively your

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Speaker 5: window starts performing like a double glazed one. Really effective

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Speaker 5: if you've got windows that get a lot of condensation too,

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Speaker 5: So it's a great hack to try.

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Speaker 4: Oh I love that. That's awesome.

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Speaker 3: How long does it stay up with just the detergent.

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Speaker 5: Potentially say months, with just a spray of water with

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Speaker 5: a drop of detergent.

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Speaker 4: Oh that's great.

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Speaker 3: There is one clip on your Instagram that I This

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Speaker 3: was completely news to me, so I'm sure it's going

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Speaker 3: to be used to others. Can you talk me through

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Speaker 3: the reverse button on like the ceiling fan on your

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Speaker 3: average ceiling fan that people might not even know exists totally.

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Speaker 5: So we're all familiar with our ceiling plans keeping us

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Speaker 5: cool in summer. So in summer they are pushing the

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Speaker 5: air down onto us so because their cooling effect is

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Speaker 5: because of the air moving across our skin, and that's

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Speaker 5: what we really want. But in winter that's the last

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Speaker 5: thing you want because it's creating those drafts, and we

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Speaker 5: wanted to seal up the drafts and make the air

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Speaker 5: nice and still where you're sitting. But what happens if

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Speaker 5: you heat your home is all that warm air rises

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Speaker 5: up to the ceiling level and it will just sit

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Speaker 5: there unless you do something about it. Climb on the

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Speaker 5: bed or climb up a ladder carefully. There's usually a

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Speaker 5: button or a switch that will reverse the direction in

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Speaker 5: which the fan spins so that it will then push

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Speaker 5: air up toward the ceiling. And when it does that,

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Speaker 5: it disperses that hot air and moves it around the room,

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Speaker 5: so it actually comes back down and keeps you cozier,

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Speaker 5: so it spreads out that nice heat instead of letting

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Speaker 5: it sit up at the ceiling.

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Speaker 3: And if we are looking to buy a house, if

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Speaker 3: we're very lucky in that position, what should we be

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Speaker 3: looking at in terms of insulation, And I guess it's

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Speaker 3: not just insulation, it's floor plan. What is the floor

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Speaker 3: tone of a house that's going to keep us warm?

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Speaker 5: Number one is look for a house that has living

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Speaker 5: areas that will get sunshine. So you really want to

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Speaker 5: look for that northern orientation because that free heat from

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Speaker 5: the sun can make a massive, massive difference. By contrast,

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Speaker 5: if you find a house that looks like it's great

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Speaker 5: but it's living areas they're actually on the south west corner,

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Speaker 5: you will be potentially very miserable in the middle of winter.

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Speaker 5: So really do add that to the checklist. Free sunshine

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Speaker 5: is the key you. Certainly in a climate where I

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Speaker 5: am in Canberra, that free sunshine totally transforms the comfort

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Speaker 5: levels of a home.

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Speaker 3: We know that the World Health Organization has said that

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Speaker 3: our home should be at least eighteen degrees for us

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Speaker 3: to be happy and healthy. Is there a temperature that's

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Speaker 3: too hot?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Look, it's an interesting one because the thermostat on

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Speaker 5: your heater is offered measuring the temperature at particular points,

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Speaker 5: so it does vary from house to house, but we

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Speaker 5: tend to say don't put the thermostat above twenty one.

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Speaker 5: If you're needing to put it above twenty one, then

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Speaker 5: there's something a bit odd or you might be losing

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Speaker 5: all heat really fast. But I tend to think that

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Speaker 5: bedrooms don't need to be at eighteen degrees. And this

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Speaker 5: is always a bit contentious that we find. There's plenty

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Speaker 5: of research to suggest you actually sleep better at a

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Speaker 5: slightly cooler temperature. So I would encourage people to try

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Speaker 5: not heating their bedrooms. Try and use the electric blanket,

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Speaker 5: warm up the bed, take the chill off, then turn

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Speaker 5: it off. You'll often find your body heat a person

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Speaker 5: in a room breathing actually keeps the room quite warm

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Speaker 5: that you may not need any heating in a bedroom.

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Speaker 5: Certainly here in Canberra, when we insulate and draft feel well,

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Speaker 5: people find they don't actually need heating in their bedrooms.

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Speaker 4: Well there you have it.

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Speaker 3: Folks, rug yourself up, put some bubble wrap on the windows,

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Speaker 3: and tape up the draft. All pretty cost effective ways

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Speaker 3: to get us through the wintery weather. This episode of

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Speaker 3: the Quigie is produced by myself, Grace Rufrey, and our

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Speaker 3: senior producer Taylor Strano, with audio production by Jacob Brown.