‘What year?’: Expat questions why Aussie homes are so cold

You’d think a Swiss bloke moving to Australia would find winter pretty mild, but he has been left stunned and asking a question that’s gone viral.

A Swiss expat has humorously questioned “what year” Aussie home builders will discover insulation as the country shivers through a frosty start to winter.

Much of the country’s east has braced freezing temperatures in a cold snap that started over the King’s Birthday long weekend, with snow blanketing NSW’s central tablelands and areas as far north as Mt Isa in northwest Queensland recording their lowest temperatures in decades.

Leandro Tonet, an online homeschooling entrepreneur living in NSW’s Byron Bay, shared a viral clip to Instagram over the weekend, rugged up in a beanie and trackies, warming his hands in front of the kitchen stove.

“POV: You’re Swiss living in Australia and you’re wondering what year insulation will be invented …” the video text read.

“Apparently the coldest place in Australia is our bathroom,” he captioned the video. “When it’s 8C outside, it’s 8C inside. Someone please tell Aussie builders how to insulate homes. Fellow expats DO YOU FEEL ME?!?!”

“Russian freezing in Australia asking the same question,” one commenter wrote.

“It’s actually colder inside,” another said.

A third wrote, “There are people in Sydney who only ever wear shorts all year round. In winter they will insist they are fine with it, that the cold weather will pass in no time. It’s just a thing here.”

Mr Tonet has been contacted for comment.

MORE: These suburbs are coldest in Aus right now

Swiss expat Leandro Tonet. Picture: Facebook

The fact that Australian homes tend to be colder in winter compared with those in other countries is no secret.

“The short answer is that most Aussie homes just weren’t designed with winter in mind,” said Gerry Wallace, managing director at building firm Greenline Australia.

“It’s a systemic result of decades of summer-first design, minimal insulation, and building policies that favoured cooling performance.”

Mr Wallace said there were a number of key culprits “we see over and over again” — number one being outdated building standards.

“Homes built before the early 2000s were rarely insulated to any decent standard,” he said. “Some still have zero insulation in the walls or floors.”

Poor sealing and draught control also means “a lot of homes here leak air like a sieve”.

“Gaps around windows, doors, floorboards, and even downlights all let warm air escape,” he said. “That’s a major reason heating feels useless in winter.”

And single-glazed windows “are still everywhere”.

“They let out heat faster than people realise and make a huge difference in how cold a home feels,” Mr Wallace said.

He added that Australia’s climate has traditionally meant a “design bias” towards summer, focusing on keeping cool in hot months.

“Wide eaves, open-plan layouts, and high ceilings might help in summer, but they don’t do you any favours when the temps drop,” he said.

Slow policy shifts mean these problems linger.

‘Most Aussie homes just weren’t designed with winter in mind.’ Picture: Supplied

“Even now, our minimum energy standards lag behind countries with similar climates,” Mr Wallace said. “NatHERS [the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme] is improving — from six-star to seven-star minimums — but a lot of housing stock is still stuck at one or two stars.”

Dr Tim Law, head of building sciences at insurance consultancy RIC Solutions, pointed out that Europe and North America “had to confront the energy crisis of the 1970s, which forced these countries to confront the issues of building energy efficiency much earlier than Australia”.

“The major population centres in Australia are also located in fairly benign weather areas,” he said.

“These, together with the abundance of coal and gas deposits in Australia, [have] seen us come later in addressing energy efficiency in buildings.”

According to Dr Law, one of the big challenges faced in designing new buildings to be more comfortable in colder months was that the regulatory system was based on the energy simulation.

“There is still very little data on whether a house that passed the simulation criteria is actually performing as simulated, or delivering on conditions assumed to be comfortable,” he said.

“The assumption is that houses are built as simulated and that the simulation is correct. However, in an age of AI hallucinations, I think it is proper for us to revert to real world measurements to ensure that the simulations are actually delivering buildings that are comfortable and energy efficient.”

The other major challenge, Dr Law added, was the balancing act between energy efficiency and health.

Australia’s climate has meant a ‘design bias’ towards summer. Picture: Supplied

“The countries that imposed energy efficiency measures during the energy crisis soon discovered that those provisions created a condensation and mould problem,” he said.

“Australia’s houses had minimum energy efficiency stipulations in 2003, but condensation management provisions were only required after 2019.”

He warned this unintended consequence of condensation and mouldy buildings across all Australian states and climate zones “reveals that we have not been getting the balance correct”.

“It is not necessarily the right priority to be pushing for energy-efficient buildings that make us thermally comfortable but sick from mould,” he said.

Dr Law suggested the “most powerful behavioural modification is that of moderating one’s expectation of comfort”.

“Heating the entire space is always going to be more energy demanding than heating the individual, just as heating a part of the body requires less energy than the whole,” he said.

“As a practical example, the Japanese have the concept of Kotatsu. It is a low table draped with a heavy blanket-like curtains on four sides, with an optional small heater mounted beneath the table. A user sits on the floor with legs tucked under the table and blankets.”

However, Goran Surbevski, senior comfort expert at Alliance Climate Control, said it was “deeply concerning” that 60 per cent of Australians “live in homes with unsafe indoor temperatures, and a third of these people say they struggle to heat their homes properly regularly”.

“More than half of those living in homes below 18C, who also report being unable to heat their homes comfortably, are relying on inefficient heating methods like electric or gas room heaters, portable heaters, or no heating at all,” he said.

“Nearly a quarter of Aussies say living in a cold home has led to health issues. It’s clear more needs to be done by homeowners and landlords to improve living conditions and protect people’s wellbeing.”

Originally published as ‘What year?’: Expat questions why Aussie homes are so cold