Caringbah House

As Sydney seems to be more and more a cooling climate, a big difference was installing more shade on the Northern side of the house, by building a large verandah (with a Vergola roof), and by extending what was a flush gable out by a metre to give summer shade to the big window below - which has made that room actually habitable in the summer. Other shading includes a pergola for the grape vine on the West side, and now the carport on the East side. Also vital were the double-glazed windows which work with the wall, ceiling and floor insulation to really keep the house at a reasonable temperature both winter and summer. By closing windows in the morning, and closing blinds as the sun moves around, the interior temperature is kept cool in summer at least up to the evening when they can all be flung open for night purging of heat. The windows also have another benefit in that they cut out street noise. So most of the time we don't need to use air conditioning - though this may not affect bills that much as we have solar to cover it during the day, though our batteries can't cover AC use in the evening (so we use fans instead).