<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/18/australia-rental-properties-temperature-survey-hotter-inside-summer>
"Renters are being forced to live in sweltering conditions, with homes
recording inside temperatures 3C hotter than outside across the summer, a new
report from Better Renting has revealed.
Summer temperatures inside 109 rental homes across the country were tracked
from December to February this year, as part of the organisation’s Renter
Researchers citizen-science project. The report found renters across Australia
were experiencing a median indoor temperature of 25C, meaning homes were above
this level 50% of the time.
The World Health Organization’s recommended safe limit is no higher than 25C
for more than nine hours a day.
Last December, Lorena Alvarez’s rental in Deception Bay, Queensland hit 36C at
2pm. The unit, which she shares with her partner and two-year-old child, is
“old and very poorly insulated”, she said.
There are gaps around the windows and doors. They have an old air-conditioner
in their child’s room and a portable one in their bedroom – if they turn them
off the house heats within minutes, she said.
“We went from $150 to nearly $300 electricity a month in summer, because we
rather pay than suffer, outside it’s always cooler than inside the house, that
we sometimes go to the shopping centre just to get out of there,” Alvarez said.
She said the couple were afraid of asking “for too much” and being evicted.
Despite the couple investing in bamboo sheets to keep them cool, she said her
partner slept on the floor occasionally as their bed gets too hot.
“It’s just horrible,” she said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
