Thanks to poor design, the rich stay warm, the poor freeze to death

If you’ve ever had the misfortune to stay or live in one of the two-storey McMansions that proliferated some years ago throughout new Australian housing estates, you’ll probably know what astronomical electricity bills the owners have to pay.

Cavernous rooms, big windows, high ceilings and poor insulation combine to provide a plasterboard palace that requires massive energy consumption to cope with the slightest temperature fluctuations.

It may be expensive, sometimes even uncomfortable, but thanks to our relatively mild winters it’s not yet likely to be a matter of life and death.

That’s not the case in some countries overseas, where harsher climatic conditions mean that poorly insulated homes play a key role in killing surprisingly large numbers of the most susceptible members of society – the elderly, very young, and the poor.
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