Efficient cooling for rental homes must be made law

The impacts are unequal

Renters’ unequal access to cooling in their homes perpetuates health disparities between both individuals and socioeconomic groups.

The health impacts of heat exposure are particularly bad for susceptible groups. For example, older people and children have less ability to regulate body temperature and cope with heat. And conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney diseases and respiratory diseases such as asthma can hamper the ability to control body temperature.

Heat also worsens mental illnesses, causing higher rates of anxiety and depressive episodes. Lifestyle behaviours such as substance abuse, particularly of alcohol, increase vulnerability to heat and dehydration.

People on low incomes are more likely to live in poor-quality rental housing that gets too hot. As well as restrictions on the cooling systems they can install, they are least able to afford air conditioning. This puts them at a higher risk of illness or even death.

What are the solutions?

Given there are three main problems – lack of cooling appliances, cost of cooling appliances, and poor home design and ineffective insulation – we need multiple solutions.

In the short term, rental standards should be reformed to include cooling appliances. In Victoria, for example, rental homes must have fixed heaters that meet energy-efficiency standards. Similar standards for cooling are needed (as the Greens have advocated).

In parallel, there are longer-term solutions that minimise the need for cooling devices such as air conditioning. Their use contributes to climate change (if not powered by 100% renewable energy).

One of these is setting passive building design standards. Building design, placement and materials can help control temperature by reducing heat gain (using insulation, shade, windows and so on) and increasing cooling methods such as air flow.

Such design standards would create homes that use less energy to cool. In France, for example, “summer comfort” standards dictate that buildings must be a comfortable temperature even without air conditioning.

While these standards could be applied to new home designs, older properties would have to be retrofitted. Research has found that motivating landlords to undertake retrofitting is difficult. It requires a form of enforceable minimum standards.

The local environment in which houses are built also plays a role. Greenery is a nature-based solution to cool urban areas. Trees around a house can provide direct cooling shade.

In summary, we need to provide renters with access to fans and air conditioners so they don’t keep suffering in the heat. We must also enhance our housing stock so we don’t depend on these appliances to keep cool in a more environmentally sustainable future.

Make it a national priority

The number of renters in Australia is likely to rise as home ownership falls further out of reach. Temperatures are rising too.

At the same time, the home environment is becoming more important. Australians spend a lot of time indoors, including working from home.

Ensuring everyone has housing that can keep them cool should be a national housing policy priority.

Zoe Goodall, Research Associate, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology and Sungkavi Selvakumaran, PhD Candidate, Swinburne University, and Lecturer in Public Health, Torrens University Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.