Wintertime Warmth

Lyrian Daniel, Emma Baker and Rehnuma Parveen, are undertaking a project to investigate temperature conditions in homes in winter (Ethics approval number H-2021-109).

A series of systematic reviews based on which the recently released WHO’s guidelines for the ‘Housing and health’ are drawn have strongly indicated that there is a causal relationship between indoor cold and priority health outcomes (e.g. respiratory morbidity and mortality, all- cause mortality in infants, hospital admissions, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and depression). Evidence suggested that cold houses are not only limited to countries with very cold winters. In fact, an increasing body of work presents evidence of unacceptably low indoor temperatures across a range of mild climates including Australia.This project is built on the findings of two previous projects H-2018-131 and H-2017-094, which found out that despite being in a moderate climate, Australian houses significantly suffer from cold indoors. The project further argues that the indoor coldness is likely to be worse in the socially rented housing due to the limited income of the inhabitants and high energy price.

If you would like to be part of the study or have any further questions, please contact Rehnuma Parveen: 08 8313 3499; rehnuma.parveen@adelaide.edu.au.