Most winter energy advice focuses on heaters and insulation but energy savings often come from places people rarely check. Small and inexpensive changes can reduce heat loss more than many standard upgrades.
Interestingly, most Australian homes lose heat in simple ways. Warm air escapes through tiny gaps, cold surfaces draw heat from the body and open-plan layouts let warmth drift away.
Another good one especially in larger houses is to make easily removable insulation blankets to put over windows in rooms you dont usually use or that dont need natural light or even over all of them after dark.
My simple tip. You A/C doesnt need to be set to 24 and everyone walking about in shorts. Set it to 18 to cut the cold and make everyone wear warm clothes with blankets.
What I cant tell you is how to convince the wife.Your wife is not being difficult. Women generally do feel the cold more than men. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-08/women-might-feel-the-cold-more-than-men-heres-why/101135250
Look into Japanese kotatsu tables. Tried this last winter, worked great. Safe if you’re careful with the heater.
There’s two windows in my apartment that have a fly screen where the glass would be, so one idea would be to actually have glass in windows. If you have windows, double glazing is a thing that exists.
What! You have no glass on 2 windows?
Yeah, it’s mental. The crazy thing is the owner lived here before us and didn’t do anything about it.
Ok, that was his choice. Unless you live in the tropics (are you in Australia?) you have a right to have glass on your windows for insulation and security reasons. What does your real estate manager say?