When you get a regular aircon service for your home, you can be assured that any minor issues will be detected before they can develop into larger problems. This is essential to keep your air conditioning working effectively and efficiently throughout the year. A well maintained aircon system will be less likely to break down when you need it most, and your energy bills will be reduced. However, many Australian homes are not really designed to resist hot days and heat can be trapped in your home. Let’s take a closer look at this issue and examine some ways to deal with this problem.

The Problem with Australian Home Design

An air conditioning service will keep your HVAC equipment working well, but many home designers rely too much on air conditioning to keep their home designs cool. Despite many homes needing to endure summer daytime temperatures in excess of 35ºC, the overall design ethos isn’t geared towards dealing with this heat in a passive way. Many home experts are calling for the Building Code of Australia to be revised with new design codes designed to include better layouts to deal with temperature extremes.

Dr. Gertrud Hatvani-Kovacs is a research associate at the University of South Australia. Dr. Hatvani-Kovacs has authored a paper titled "Heat stress resistant building design in the Australian context," which says that the current energy efficient Australian home designs do not increase heat stress resistance.

Dr. Hatvani-Kovacs stated that "The real concern with newly-built buildings is that are compliant with the building code, they might be over-insulated and have very high airtightness," she then added, "but at the same time they lack natural ventilation and have a lack of shading devices."

Dr. Gertrud Hatvani-Kovacs believes that insulation is one of the most significant issues, she said: "They (homes) behave like plastic bags and do not let the building cool down, so their energy efficiency can be very counterproductive."

Using Evaporative Cooling

Evaporative air conditioning is an ideal way to deal with the hot conditions caused by poor building designs that are not sufficient to deal with extreme heat. Dr. Gertrud Hatvani-Kovacs said that evaporative cooling measures are preferable to a reverse cycle air conditioning system. This will provide naturally cooled air that’s moist enough to avoid drying out the skin and eyes of people in the home. Ideally, this would be combined with some external shading to keep the heat out of the home in the first place.

4 Tips to Keep Your Home Cooler on Hot Days

Install an evaporative air conditioning system in your home.

Remove rugs and carpets on concrete flooring to allow heat to dissipate in the ground.

Keep your curtains and shades drawn during the day to keep the hot sunshine out of the home.

Hang wet blankets over any open windows during the night.

If you need an air conditioning service in Perth, contact Air Spares of a no obligation quote today.