Embrace Nature’s Cooling Methods

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It looks like we will get a few hot days soon so I am looking forward to keeping cool and not doing much when the sun is high up. I keep the active stuff for early morning and late afternoon when things are cooler.

I live in an old Queenslander which is a very good summer house. Shocking insulation but high ceilings and a pretty low thermal mass. What does that mean? Well it is made of wood mainly, nothing that stores heat like bricks and stones. It cools quickly. It is a good idea to open everything at night. Then we close everything mid morning and start the air conditioning if and when the temperature hits 26° inside. Why 26? It is a sensible temperature to set the A/C to. It is reasonable and the power use would get 10% up per degree if it was set lower. Beside, the solar panels go full blast in the middle of the day and easily provide the A/C power required.

I like to stop the A/C some time before sunset, then open everything again when the outside temperature is bearable (28° maybe). I found this minimises my power usage (and bill…) while keeping the house reasonably cool.

If your house has a high thermal mass I am told that it is a good idea to set and forget the A/C to 26° for the summer, thus using the thermal mass to your advantage. But I have no experience with that.

For the average Australian house, climate control uses about 25% of the total power. You will find plenty of cooling tips on this website:

https://www.ausgrid.com.au/-/media/Documents/energy-use/Ausgrid-Cooling-Brochure.pdf

Picture source: Stats from South Australian Government Website.


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