COOL Weather

Yes, it can get cool in Darwin. Most people never believe that to be true, but this week has seen quite a few cool nights - with last night a minimum of 17C. Likely to be even cooler over the weekend!

And...........there is a wind chill factor too. Cool weather usually means low humidity, often with east or south east winds from across the continent. So the apparent temperature is often 3-5 degrees C less than the measured temperature. A temperature effectively of around 13C this morning.

Most homes are designed to be open to breezes, so interior areas can cool quickly, and many have tiled floors. They get COLD on the usual bare feet when moving around the house, and there is a breeze blowing.

It is all relative...........but definitely cool for Darwin. Even daily maximum temperatures are below 30C. Cool nights are considered excellent for mango flowering........maybe a good crop this year.

Should even have another week of similar weather, driven by a slow moving, large high pressure system in southern Australia.

Cool but enjoyable........even a bit cool for swimming!

Hot July Night [ with a wink to Neil Diamond]

It is July. The coolest [ note- NOT coldest] month of the year...........or it used to be. A time when Darwinians could gloat, just a little, at southerners, as the night temperature dropped below 20C, usually consistently, along with clear sky and warm but not too hot days. And a nice cool E / SE wind during the day. No doonas, nor even a light blanket, but at least a sheet on top and mostly not even an overhead fan going.

One expects a hot August night in the northern summer, but it should be a cool July night here!
BUT..........

It just ain't so.......

The past three nights have seen three of the hottest July nights on record for Darwin. Friday night equalled the previous hottest minimum for July of 25C, followed by Saturday night with a new record of 25.8C as the hottest minimum for July. But wait, that is not all.........last night was an even hotter night with a minimum temperature of 26.6C. Yes............that is the mimimum temperature, not yesterdays maximum.

It was 29C in the office as I opened the door this morning around 0800.

At least we have been sitting up at night watching the Tour de France on TV, not getting off to bed. But last night it was around 30C at 0100 this morning, and we decided...............the air conditioner got a run, after really crappy sleeping nights over the past few nights!

So we had a resonable sleep.

But an air conditioner for night time use in July????? That is crazy!

Modern Houses in Darwin

The modern current type of design for houses in Darwin seems to have forgotten many of the guiding principles of design for the region. And a black or charcoal grey roof is not a smart idea in this climate!

They tend to be heavy in construction- brick or block and on a concrete slab on the ground; with poor flow through ventilation; often with poor insulation, particularly in the roof space; poor orientation so that the prevailing SE or N /NW breezes are missed; small windows, often that cannot be opened adequately so that the effective opening is less than 50% of the glass areas, and often too with little or no outdoor roofed space that could be utilised for outdoor living. Higher costs partly drives some of these - eg outdoor areas, and often these do get added later.

However, with this type of design - probably more appropriate for a temperate climate - you are needing to seriously consider airconditioning, to make the house habitable.

Yes, there are some other considerations now. People say that household security is improved with this current design. I am unconvinced, as adequate security can be built into for example louvred windows with full openings by using cross bars that are unobtrusive, and anyway, residents often add serious heavy security screens anyway on the outside.......more costs.

Some of the houses can be attractive inside, but I wonder if this is just pandering to newcomers to the region who "expect" houses just like Melbourne, Sydney or Perth. This climate demands a different type of house design.

There are some excellent architects locally in north Australia - with their design offerings seen from Brisbane north and through to Darwin. Suitable aesthetics, good design and well suited to handle both the wet and dry sectors of the local weather. These do not necessarily exclude airconditioning, but rather use it to moderate conditions eg at night in the bedrooms or to supplement in the hot weather in November and December, or for an office. With modern inverter air con systems operating costs are modest if used in conjunction with well designed buildings, and obviously not needed in the dry season.

The other type of "southern" house still needs airconditioning in the cooler dry season weather, as they do not use the cooler dry season breezes well, due to poor cross flow.

Apart from solar HWS, which are very common on new and even older houses, there is little use of solar PV systems, except in Alice Springs, where there is support from the Solar Cities Program. One local Darwin house estimates that their PV system still produces about 75% of output in the wet season compared to dry season output which is higher. So it is feasible. But few seem to care.

There has been little use of water management systems, although many do run their washing machine in to the back garden [ not always legal though].

Superior design can be effective, and cost effective, but it seems that many do not seem to understand what it really means to have a house design that is well suited to the climate.

Our own house is a post Cyclone Tracy built house in a time when it was difficult to really do what was best design wise as the pressure to build was intense. However, cross flow air, solar HWS, fans in bathrooms, light colurs, tiled floors reduced thermal load on external walls and roof, high grade insulation in the E and W walls, well oriented to catch the breeze and similar had to part of the design and there is little we would change now.

We do have air conditioning in the bedrooms, but it is used predominantly at night.

The New Residence

It has been raining consistently in our region now for over two months. And keeping dry in wet weather is always a priority.


So when the opportunity came to acquire an all weather dog house, the purchase was made. No fans or air conditioners, but a truly tropical dog house with one open end and open weave shade cloth on the other........plus a special edge flap to keep the rain off the sarlon shade cloth. Just a flow through ventilation system. The canvas is very waterproof.


Dear dog was at first somewhat mystified at this strange contraption, but a short period on the chain adjacent to the new residence and in she went. It is actually just a waterproof canvas cover, bolted to the existing sarlon shade cloth dog bed, a bed she already used a lot anyway.


I am not convinced that with the windy storms we get here that it will actually be a dry bed, but hey.......it is better than getting a decent drenching!

Darwin Houses

This hot period of the year really brings out the best in people - NOT. They complain about the hot weather, humidity and burning sun, and generally get VERY short tempered. The month of the falling mango!

The usual action DEMANDED by the recently arrived family [read southern, temperate, pale skinned wife and kids] is to air condition EVERYTHING, EVERYDAY, ALL DAY!! That is expensive, and probably unnecessary. Do not get me wrong......I do have an airconditioned office [so do most people] and we opted to have the bedrooms airconditioned, many years ago. A good nights sleep, in lowered humidity, at around 25C [usually close to outside air temperature overnight] makes for a happy chappy the next day. As it does for school kids, uni students and most others.

And on those awful nights of 28C minimum, with still air, at 65 - 75% relative humidity it does ensure a decent nights sleep.

BUT......the trend is to aircondition the whole house all the time. BUT......before we examine the current house designs and issues, lets first go back 50 years or more.

The Burnett House

Designed around the late 1930s and built before and after World War 2 in Darwin these elevated houses focussed on flow through ventilation, with plenty of louvres and walls that often allowed airflow over the top internally [ ie went nearly, but not quite to the ceiling], a house orientation to allow prevailing breezes to flow through the house, and some even had ventilation in the roof space. Built with low thermal mass materials they were considered easy to live in. More details here - http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=16285

Commonwealth Housing 1950s - 1970s

A range of fantastic and simple designs, in predominantly elevated or split level houses built by the Federal Government to house public servants. They took many of the features of the Burnett houses, and developed them further.

Many were simple linear designs with living at one end, and 2-4, mostly three, bedrooms in a row adjoining the living room / kitchen, with a single bathroom and toilet. Low thermal mass building materials to allow easy heat up - cool down, with again a predominant east - west orientation, allowing a breeze through the louvres which were along the side of the house. They had generous roof overhangs for shading and direction of the rain away from walls and windows.

I must admit though that there were quite a few ocassions when the rain blew hard and did blow in on the floor...but that was easy to mop up. And surprise surprise.....from about the mid 1960s they had SOLAR HOT WATER SYSTEMS on all houses. Think about that ......a giant act of faith by someone who recommended they be installed on all new houses, in around 1965!

Our family lived in one [a different model to that above, but see the solar hot water unit on the roof] and although we did insulate the roof space and aircondition the bedrooms, the rest was not airconditioned and was comfortable. Even the bedrooms were open windowed during the day.

Oh, I forgot.........all had large, 56 inch overhead ceiling fans in bedrooms and the living room, but not the bathroom and toilet [ THAT was rectified in our present home - and it is great!].

Car parking and outdoor entertaining was downstairs, and the house lot was mostly in the 800 - 1100 square metre range, with 850 - 1000 most common.

Then came Cyclone Tracy.....................a category 4/5 beast and many many homes just blew away. To be truthful though, designing to withstand that level of cyclonic force is difficult, VERY difficult.

The housing changed after that. More to follow - but this is a good read too -

ACCLIMATISATION: ARCHITECTURE AT THE TOP END OF AUSTRALIA
David Bridgman. Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 2003. $38.50.

Our Unmanaged Neighbourhood Dogs

We have an open society......and open houses. Mostly designed for flow through ventilation, breezes and comfort.

It comes at a cost though.........every neighbourhood dog is able to imprint their aural signal right on your brain.

Even this morning, on a leisurely stroll at daybreak with our dog, a fantastic time of day, new occupants of two nearby houses have loud unrestrained aural vandalism ocassioned by their ###### dogs. Dogs respond to inputs by their owners, and keeping quiet is a good option.

I have no problem with dogs barking if you come within a metre or so of the fence, but throwing themselves at the fence in a frenzy is really a bit much. We do have isuses with petty burglary but all the players do is move elsewhere, away from the menace dogs. So dogs can be a deterrent. But it is the ordinary person out for a evening or early morning stroll that cops the idiot dogs.

Oh I forgot..........got it wrong. There are no idiot dogs, only idiot owners!

I can be be a bit smug......have a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a breed not well known to be a barking dog problem. She is however, not beyond giving a deep growl to indicate her displeasure at near intruders, and if she charged, you would be knocked down - smartly.

But if the owners of problem noisy dogs make a small effort to go to Dog Obedience Club classes, most behaviour problems are managed. Too often on a walk you do not even hear the owners admonishing the dog for wild barking behaviour. If a dog barks.......it should be an investigable issue. Unmanaged dog barking is not good for the owners or dog.

In more temperate climates, with more animals inside or behind more significant fences, maybe barking is not as big an issue. But here it is a serious disruptive problem.

Apartment Living in Tropical Darwin

Darwin is seeing, like many Australian cities, a revival of the city through development of living in the city…….except that mostly it is in the air.

Sure, flats have been around in Darwin for years, and there are some horrible examples. Boxy, poor ventilation, narrow inaccessible stairs, no lifts, ugly yards – usually wall to wall concrete, no facilities – seem to have been common. Sound like a normal flat complex?

They had poor insulation, and were unbearably hot, unless air conditioned in the wet season.
Our weather swings from balmy dry season conditions in June – August of 18-30C with low humidity through to 27- 35C with very high insolation and very high humidity and still conditions in November and December before the cooling rains arrive.

Some of the more recent examples around Darwin are quite trendy, and they have that great option – a decent sized outside terrace / balcony / verandah, that is actually usable. A great option to sit and have a drink, eat or cook the BBQ and enjoy the breeze. But there are some ugly examples, and some really outstanding very attractive flat complexes.

Most have sensible design options - window shading, a floor design allowing flow through ventilation, roof overhangs for sun and rain protection, good sized windows that open well, verandah, good insulation, adequate apartment storage including a store room down in the undercroft plus some facilities - a pool of some sort, grass, gym etc or some of these. A few are even built with low thermal load materials [ often a bit more difficult with high rise buildings].

Enjoy the Darwin scene.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Tropical Houses in Darwin

Everyone needs a home - house - abode - donga - camp......or whatever. Some are flash and very expensive, while others are well, cheap and nasty.

There is a lot of debate in northen Australia about housing, block sizes and energy use. Mostly, residents need to keep cool - current very cool dry season weather excluded. So efficient design allowing easy breeze movement, plenty of windows, lots of trees and shading, even airvents on the roof, are part of the mix. Or they were until recently - as intrusion of temperate style houses with heavy thick high thermal load walls, small sliding windows on small blocks continue to expand into the local scene. Funnily enough, it is noticeable that modern homes in southern Queensland, on the Sunshine coast, are now including more warm weather efficient design, while the NT seems to be pandering to the influx of new residents and their perceptions of modern temperate housing - not what is needed in modern warm weather building design.

There are some good designs in modern apartment blocks, and some that are awful. A lot of apartments will include airconditioning, and so will houses. But that can be ok if used wisely, for example bedrooms when those hot still nights of September through December arrive, with minimum temperatures around 28C.

We are going to start with the latest edition to the Darwin skyline - Evolution. It is upmarket, expensive and all apartments. Lots of air conditioning, but it is still not finished. But high quality fit out is expected. Maybe we can add more later.

This building will dominate the Darwin central skyline. From all over. Thirty three levels. Topped out last week, with a giant tree gracing the roof, now removed.

Evolution on the left, and 16 floors of Pandanas [another new city apartment /hotel block]on the right.

Hope to add views of a range of housing over the next few weeks.