If you live in a warm climate, I personally think insulation is the worst (excepting roofing). Not because of efficiency, but because you isolate yourself from nature! The traditional Queenslander (look up Bluey if you don’t know what I mean), has so much going for it. It allows airflow through the whole house, a protected outside to sit and be with nature, lizards coming and going, bliss!
This hermetically sealed environment that we create for ourselves is bad for us.
That can work just fine by intentionally opening windows. Having a "drafty" house is just forcing that 100% of the time (which isn't always wanted).
Side note: As a US resident in an area with a ton of mosquitos, I cannot understand why other countries don't heavily use window screens. Lizards a pretty cool, flies and other flying bugs are just annoying and gross.
> In Europe, outside of the south, mosquitoes are pretty tame.
Use to be... native species were mostly a problem during summer and during night time.
But since about 15 years ago you had a massive spread of invasive Asian Tiger mosquitos (Aedes albopictus) genomic studies show it was likely introduced via Italy and Albania simultaneously.
Those things are nasty, go 24/7, and are just a very different beast in terms of disease vector.
There are already established population pockets as far North as Switzerland. Yet another problem that is likely to worsen as temperatures continue to rise.
Eh, in Romania mosquitoes are pretty bad. And in the last couple of years they're "cousins" came along: tiger mosquitoes. Those cause a really nasty bite
As an immigrant to the US I hate the window screens and have removed the ones I can: it feels like being in prison not being able to truly open the windows. We live in an area without mosquitoes or bugs to speak of, but all the apartments here seem to have the screens anyway.
Insulation can be orthogonal to fresh air. Ventilation energy recovery units [1] exist to help reduce loss from fresh air (and are code for new houses where I am). This has the benefit that you can have more fresh air, for the same heat loss, since the loss will be from the fresh air, rather than through high thermal conductivity through the non-breathable portions of the walls.
Australians have a very strange relationship to insulation and temperature.
Some might say it's the defining feature and purpose of having shelter is that we don't live at the mercy of the weather.
I can't run a business with indoor temps from 24-31c during business hours. Compounding loss of brain function outside of 18-23c is found by every study I've read.
The less exposure to particulate pollution and extreme temperature, the healthier you are, I can't see any arguments otherwise.
Don’t generalise from me. I am a very strange Australian!
From a business perspective, I think you are probably right. I don’t personally find cold affects my brain function (you can put on warm clothing right?), but heat probably does once we get above 30c. It’s summer right now in Aus, might be affecting some of my posting.
For home though, I’m happy for the inside to be much the same as the outside. Mostly though, I just want the interface between my home and the natural world to be permeable. I think that’s good for mental health, and that the pros outweigh the cons. The thing is that you can’t have that and properly insulate it at the same time. So a choice has to be made, and I personally lean towards less insulation/more lizards.
Having said that, we’re all different, whatever floats your boat. If you prefer plastic bubbles inside caves of steel, who am I to judge?
Warm climate, remember? If you cannot cope with an ambient temperature that drops below 20C, there is this thing called “radiant heat”. You can make it with fire.
Also, relatively small amounts of electricity. Radiant, just like your soul would become.
The Queenslander house style was built for large blocks that had sufficient airflow, they were built to be cheap and don't work properly with modern block sizes.
While they are iconic, and have some great design features, the lack of insulation is not one of them.
A modern well insulated house with a heatpump + solar is extremely energy efficient and comfortable in all weather.
“Modern block sizes” will vary where you live, and you can build smaller of course.
Obviously this is location dependent advice. If you live in a lifeless suburban wasteland, then outside is no better than inside. If, on the other hand, there is nature around you, and it doesn’t get too cold in winter, then insulation is a pointless exercise! Get a ceiling fan and learn to tolerate a bit of heat.
I, personally, need nature to stay mentally healthy, and having nature wander inside from time to time helps greatly.
Queenslanders work fine in Queensland, where the lows in winter are still double-digit C. Most of the world (or even Aus) isn't like that. A Queenslander in Canberra would have a massive heating bill 8 months of the year to keep it safely livable.
This hermetically sealed environment that we create for ourselves is bad for us.