Sweltering Cities does its best to advise people on how to stay cool in a heatwave, but some renters are finding landlords resisting implementing ways to cool houses and apartments, especially the “hot boxes” that face west or north.
When we talked to Emma Bacon, executive director of Sweltering Cities, on Tuesday afternoon, Melbourne had hit 45 degrees, and parts of Victoria had hit an all-time high of 49 degrees.
Bacon was in her office because it was simply too hot to stay at home, and she wondered how she would get home when the heatwave was predicted to continue until 10 pm.
On days like this, “the most important thing everyone should be doing is staying hydrated,” Bacon said.
“You should be drinking a glass of water every hour on hot days, even if you don’t feel thirsty.”
The next thing you can do for your house is to try to keep hot air out as much as possible: pull down door shades, close blinds, and, in the absence of window coverings, put up sheets or blankets to block the sun.
“If you can’t keep your whole home closed, then choose one room that you can keep as cool as possible that you can stay in, and once you have a cool room, set up a fan.”
According to Bacon, in the thousands of conversations she has had across the country, 75 to 80 per cent of people might have airconditioning, but two of three of these say that concerns about costs are stopping them from turning it on.
“We’re going to have people this week saying, ‘Can I afford to keep cool’ and weigh up their health and comfort against whether they can pay their next electricity bill?”
One tip is that people can put their airconditioners up slightly higher, at around 26 to 27 degrees, to save energy, and point a fan to increase evaporative cooling, and then dampen their skin.
If you don’t have aircon, dampening your skin with a spray or a washcloth can make a really big difference.
“Cooling can be super effective for your body [and] physiologically make you feel a lot cooler and keep your core temperature low.”
Where possible, open the house up again if there’s a cool change in the evening. However, this will be challenging for people in areas dealing with both bushfire smoke and intense heat.
“It’s the compounding impacts of multiple climate crises that are happening at once that’s making it harder for anyone to be safe.”
Changes you should make on cooler days
In preparation for hotter days, there are many “small, quiet things you can do” to lower the heat. This includes getting more door snakes, draft proofing your house, or implementing simple upgrades such as better blinds, planting more trees, and installing a screen door, so you can open the door to catch any passing breeze.
Ceiling fans and insulation also help.
Heatwaves target the most vulnerable
Bacon says the people most at risk are people with disabilities who are more likely to have lower energy efficient homes and for whom costs are a big concern.
“We’ve got a big frustration right now. With flood or fire, the government announces packages in response to ‘this is how we’re supporting the community.’ Still, when it comes to heat waves, people are essentially being told to manage it themselves.”
There needs to be more support and outreach from the government for those most vulnerable and community organisations that support them, “so no one’s living in a dangerously hot home.”
“Fundamentally, we need to turn off the oven that’s heating our planet by stopping the burning of coal and gas because even a fraction of a degree matters.”
An interesting note was that heat is affecting the way people cook and access food. According to Bacon, people had told her that they could not bear to turn on the stove when it’s hot.
“It resonates with me; my kitchen got over 35 degrees over the first week of January.”
“That’s something we are really conscious of, what we hear especially from women is they sometimes feel like a social obligation to put hot food on the table for their family. You see this intersection of the social pressure on women in caring roles; the fact that it is dangerous in their homes, [they are dreading] being over a hot stove.”
Poorly designed apartments mean renters and owners are in trouble
People in apartments with west or north facing windows can feel they are in “hot boxes” that heat up like ovens and bake all day.
These apartments are also harder to cool in the evening. Full afternoon sun can send temperatures to 30 or 40 degrees inside, so tenants need to make sure they have awnings, blinds and cooling.
These rental properties are becoming “really unsafe”, Bacon says.
In work with the City of Melbourne last year, Bacon said her team found that plan b for some people is to leave and stay with a friend, but others who have kids or care for people with disabilities responded that they “don’t know what to do.”
At the end of last year, the Victorian government introduced minimum standards for landlords with stipulations around energy efficiency such as insulation, draught proofing, efficient heating and cooling and upgraded appliances.
While it was a win for renters, Bacon says her organisation attempted to push for enforcement for simple efficiency improvements, such as having screen doors and putting in blinds. But renters told her that landlords are refusing to go along with simple changes.
“It’s fantastic for the state to be the first to put cooling in rental minimum standards, but there’s some frustration we hear from renters, saying aircon is good, but we really want energy efficient measures – we want to make our house cool, not just have aircon.”
Bacon’s organisation, which started at the beginning of 2020, currently has eight staff members across NSW, Victoria and WA, but works to support people nationally.
The organisation’s recent focus has been on the intersection of climate inequality and health. “In a country like this – we live in a wealthy country, people should not be dying or getting sick in heat waves.
“On days like today in Melbourne, where it’s 45 degrees, it’s extreme. If we don’t take climate action, that is going to become more and more common. This is the direct implication if we keep approving coal and gas mines.”