Control Your Climate

In the spirit of ‘don’t ask what the climate can do for you, but what you can do for the climate’, Swedish interior designer Anna-Carin McNamara will guest blog on how to control your climate, stay warm/cool and have a fatter wallet to show for it. Please enjoy some climate words of wisdom....

“You should be used to the cold – you are Swedish!” is something I get told very often. The fact is I have never felt or been colder than here in Australia.
Creating a comfortable indoor climate, something Swedes are quite spoilt with, seems for some reason an unsurmountable task for Australians. Delusional believes that we live in a tropical climate and a “That’ll do” attitude is drying out our skins and our wallets without us even being aware it could be so different.

I know it comes down to dollars and “cheap and quick” is the mantra. To spend money on heating and cooling for the lifetime in a draughty house is conveniently neglected when the renovation budget is tight. Not sure about you but I think we use our heaters from April to October – 7 months out of 12! Still, heating and insulation are neglected and cooling is always prioritised.

If Australians were to adopt some of the Swedish ways of construction, not only would we leave the cold out in winter but also prevent the heat from coming in during the summer.

So what would it take to build the Swedish way?

Insulated walls and floor - lesson number one in building technology in my Swedish college was to calculate the time it takes for heat to travel from one side of wall to the other thereby classifying - depending on where you live -the type of wall you need to build to maintain a perfect (20-22 C) indoor climate. And I can reveal it was never just double brick.

Windows - Double-glazing or at least a “no gap” frame.

Controlled ventilation – no, the beach towel in the gap between the windows does not qualify.

Heating - hydronic (ie water) carried heating in either radiators strategically placed or as underfloor heating.

Voila! The perfect base for a pleasant room climate, to be enjoyed without your fleece and woollen beanie.

Colours/lighting/ furniture are rendered useless if you have to spend your time rubbing hands for heat or hover around the heater in the corner…. If you are like me generally by bedtime- finally – an acceptable temperature have been achieved and then the next morning it all starts again with slippers and mittens…

So go for it, take control of your indoor climate and you’d be surprised how much more pleasant life will become, summer and winter. And your wallet will also be happier in the long run.





Image courtesy of belowtheclouds.com