An energy efficiency assessment provided a useful roadmap to guide Ella and her family as they start their renovation journey.
Ella and her partner bought a weatherboard house atop a steep ridge in Hardys Bay which they moved into in early 2025.
She openly admits it wasn’t the most practical choice. Access is either a hike up 100 steps or a rickety inclinator that “feels like a derelict carnival ride”. The house itself is built for a summer holiday. No insulation. No cooling or heating (aside from two decrepit ceiling fans). An ancient hot water system. The cockatoos have destroyed the window frames and there are leaks aplenty – or breezeways, however you choose to see it.
Having spent the past five years in Darwin, acclimatized to the tropical heat, Ella thought that the beautiful location of their new home would more than compensate for any winter discomfort. “But a January night in the low 20s sent me late-night panic-buying ugg boots for the whole family and a few days later we had Louisa hiking up the slope with her suitcase and thermal camera to do a home energy assessment”.
Louisa is the local independent energy efficiency assessor who Ella found via the Electrify Bouddi website. She appraised the house in under an hour and then sat down with Ella to share her results.
“Your house is one star, and the average Australian household is 3 stars” Louisa said.
“Basically, the inside temperature will always be the exact same as the outside temperature.”
Ella remembers thinking that they would all just have to buy down jackets!
Several days later Louisa followed up with an energy assessment report and ‘Home Efficiency Scorecard’ via email. WELL BELOW AVERAGE, it said in bold letters across the top, with just one gold star out of ten.
“We failed miserably” recalls Ella, but she was comforted to see that Louisa’s report outlined a bunch of simple measures to improve thermal efficiency.
“Initially I got that sick feeling you get when you know you’re going to have to spend a whole lot of money on something you can’t see, but once I read on there were a lot of clever solutions. Louisa’s first recommendation was draught proofing by filling the gaps around window and door frames. She said that this can prevent up to 25% of heat loss in winter, or heat gain in summer. Going into stealth-mode with a caulking gun sounded like fun to me.”
“Louisa explained that our single-glazed skylights and cathedral windows would act like heat chimneys in the winter, and she recommended in the short-term installing honeycomb blinds to prevent significant heat loss, but in the long-term replacing them with double glazing.”
Louisa also suggested putting a door at the base of the stairwell, getting window coverings with pelmets throughout the house and external shutters on the western side, floor and ceiling insulation, replacing the knackered hot water system with a heat pump, and installing reverse-cycle air conditioner for heating and cooling.
“Louisa used a thermal camera to photograph the only double-glazed window in the house and showed me the beneficial impacts of the double-glazing. It cut the heat! It was amazing to be able to see it on a heat map,” noted Ella.
“Louisa has given us a really useful map to guide us as we start our renovation journey. Some things we can do straight away, and others will take far longer, but at least we can make sure that we consider the right things at the right time!”.
Ella’s home energy efficiency assessment was undertaken on 31/1/25 by:
Louisa Klopsteins of Van Holland Built Environment
Total cost: $ 660
Read about all the simple ways you can reduce your energy use and cut emissions.