''I agree with power companies shutting off air cons etc when they need too. It will force houses to be built with energy efficiency in mind. Eg How many buildings do you know which have greater than R4 insulation values? or even double glazed windows.''
I disagree with the 'idea' that shutting off power to places is the 'stick' approach which forces people to update shoddy and badly designed and built buildings.
Very clearly, Australia has woeful quality building. This is not news - the window story, as a simple example, is clear to see - Australia lags other nations terribly - and yet Australia out of all of those nations has one of the strongest argument FOR performance windows.
The answer - and the ONLY answer to raise the quality of building in Australia is via better standards - mandated by LAW.
If you don't have that - the dodgy builder industry will just continue to supply rubbish building - at sky high prices. And Ozzies will accept that stupidity, the evidence is very clear that they will take what is offered and pay the prices demanded.
As to existing housing stock - the SAME must happen -------- it must be mandated by law that homes are upgraded -
it is a more complicated area, because many people can't afford to upgrade - so, there will need to be assistance programs. In some cases where a person owns a home and is in the last years of their lives - then, government must decide to either wait for their death and the passing of the asset - which then MUST be upgraded - OR, that the person is probably fully funded for the upgrade at the time, - because most who only have a couple of years to live - probably won't be interested in replacing the old windows - they'll just want to turn the aircon up a bit and pay the power - and, they can't be blamed for that.
Turning off the aircon - to induce change - IMO, - in an old persons home on a hot day - is nothing short of criminal.
There MUST be other ways. I'm afraid that Ozzie society MUST pay for it's 'she'll be right' attitude of a long history of accepting rubbish housing.
