Weatherization near you

Weatherising fails when it is done as a shopping list rather than a sequence. Each step below makes the next one cheaper or smaller, and doing them out of order means paying for capacity you did not need.

The sun is high in summer and low in winter, which is the fact all good Australian shading is built around. A fixed horizontal element above a north-facing window can be sized to block the high summer sun and let the low winter sun through, which is why eaves and correctly proportioned awnings work so well on that elevation.

West and east are the hard ones, because the sun is low in the sky when it strikes those windows and a horizontal element above them does very little. That is where adjustable external shading earns its place: external blinds, shutters, retractable awnings and screens that can be dropped in the afternoon and lifted the rest of the time. Deciduous planting does the same job on a longer timescale, shading in summer and dropping its leaves for winter.

The reason external shading beats internal blinds is simple: once the solar energy is through the glass it is inside the room, and the blind is then a warm object in your living space. Internal coverings are still worth having, particularly with a pelmet or a close-fitting track that stops air circulating past the glass, but they are the second line, not the first.

The conventional response to a hot or cold house is to buy more capacity, and it works in the sense that a larger air conditioner will eventually win. It is an expensive way to win, because it is paid for every summer afternoon for the life of the machine, and because a house that needs a very large machine is usually uncomfortable in ways the machine cannot fix, such as a radiantly hot western wall or a cold floor.

Fabric measures cost once and keep working with the power off, which matters more than it used to in a country with heatwaves and outages. They also make the machine you do buy smaller, quieter and cheaper to run, which is why sequencing them before replacing the heating and cooling saves money twice.

The honest qualification is that fabric measures are disruptive and slower to deliver, and that in a rental or a house you plan to leave soon the calculation is different. Shading, draught sealing, window coverings and dealing with an exhaust fan are all cheap, quick and often reversible, which makes them the sensible subset for a shorter horizon.

A weatherised house is a tighter house, and any gas appliance in it is now operating in different conditions. Energy Safe Victoria explains that factors such as wind or the use of appliances including bathroom exhaust fans can lower the air pressure inside a room and create a negative pressure environment, that airflow through the flue may then become restricted or in some cases even reversed, and that if the supply of fresh air to the burner is interrupted the flame will produce high levels of carbon monoxide.

The appropriate closing step is therefore a service by a licensed gasfitter who knows the house has been sealed. Energy Safe Victoria advises having gas heaters serviced at least once every two years by a qualified gasfitter who inspects the heater and checks its installation including testing for carbon monoxide leakage, and states that gasfitters are required to test during installation and servicing to ensure heaters do not spill combustion products and that exhaust fans do not affect the heater. Bring that forward to the end of the weatherising work rather than waiting for the next due date.

Household energy programmes in Australia are run by the states and territories rather than by a single national body. Victoria, New South Wales and the other jurisdictions each operate their own schemes, with their own eligible activities, their own registered providers and their own paperwork, and they change over time. There is no single national entitlement that covers weatherising a house wherever you live.

Before you commit, check your own state or territory energy department's current offering, and ask each business quoting whether they are registered to deliver work under it, because in most schemes only registered providers can create the entitlement. Ask whether the figure in front of you is a programme price or a retail price, what documentation you will be given, and who lodges it.

It is also worth asking about any measures aimed specifically at rental properties, since several states have introduced or are introducing minimum standards for rented homes and the obligations differ from those on an owner-occupier. If you rent, or you are a rental provider, that is a different set of rules from the general programmes and should be checked separately.

The spread is very wide because the measures are. Draught sealing and internal window coverings are inexpensive. External shading ranges from a simple awning to a structure that needs approval. Ceiling insulation depends on the roof space and on the fittings in it. Glazing improvements are the most expensive item per unit of benefit and are usually the last thing to do. Whichever package is proposed, the thing to look at is whether it follows a sequence or is simply a list.

LokalMatch is where the job starts, not where it ends. Say which rooms become unbearable and in which month, which way the worst windows face, what shading exists now, what you heat and cool with, and your postcode. Shading, glazing, insulation, building and gasfitting businesses covering your area then contact you directly, and they pay LokalMatch for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not do the work, does not set or quote prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, so insist on a package presented in priority order with the reasoning beside each item.