I've been pretty shocked at the poor insulation in houses here, since I move from the UK last year. The winters in Melbourne are really mild compared to what I'm used to, but, my energy bills are much, much higher in winter. Why? Insulation, or total lack of. The house I live in leaks like a sieve, has single-glazed windows and clearly has had very little thought at all put into keeping the warm in and the cold out, or in summer, the cold in and the warm out.
Every time I put the heating on (as little as reasonably possible) I'm
wasting energy, CO2 and money, not even using it to successfully warm my house. That kind of waste, multiplied over a city, is absolutely enormous, and can be measured, in Australia, in coal plants. Being in a rented place, there's little I can do about it now except plug the obvious gaps, like the stupid slatted window in the toilet. Should I buy a place here, the first thing I'll be doing is getting the insulation and glazing up to scratch. Then I'll watch my energy bills plummet. Then I'll add some solar, and be in business
. There's no reason in Australia to waste vast amounts of (largely non-renewable and polluting) energy on wasteful heating
and cooling just because houses haven't been built properly.