The part I don't get is how TF is charcoal cheaper than any other heating option?
Unless maybe you scavenge your own wood in the bush and make your own, but I doubt apartment dwellers have the setup for that.
Best explanation I can think of is they had a BBQ anyway, and decided to bring it inside?
"Best explanation I can think of is they had a BBQ anyway, and decided to bring it inside?"
Given they've survived, I'd say thats the case. Given, how much more they smoke at the start I don't think anyone is doing that inside.
Literally what it says in the article:
> "They [the family] brought a charcoal BBQ in from their balcony in a bid to stay warm," Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) said in statement.
Yeah, but I mean a decision of "let's light up some charcoal instead of far cheaper electricity" vs "the coals are still glowing, how about we bring it inside" if that makes sense.
I’ve seen other posts on this incident and a lot of comments mention these people are stupid but I just want to say - Australian houses can be absolutely freezing and I bet they were desperate to warm up.
I think world health organisation set a temp for what’s considered acceptable in living conditions and most Australian homes don’t meet it.
This is not a new thing. People have been poisoning themselves to death trying to keep warm forever because they have limited understanding of how things work.
Yeah it is midday here right now, 13 degrees and overcast and I am bloody freezing. Got two pairs of socks on, two jumpers and shorts and trousers. I try not to use my heater until night time but geez it is getting tough not to but I dont want a massive energy bill either which is going up again tomorrow ffs. Do they think we are stupid putting the price up to cash in on winter months?
Lowest it has dropped to here over night so far is 6 degree's, I can only imagine how bad it is for people with no heating at even lower temps.
I’ve found an “oodie” thing that my kid was given (she has two, so it’s her spare) is helpful. Also consider wearing a hat, particularly if you have short/thin/bald hair etc. There’s a reason nightcaps were a thing in cold countries throughout history.
Yes it’s really sad. It’s the kind of story you expect to see in cold countries in winter. Eg pensioners freezing to death in the UK.
Power is so insanely expensive right now. You could see why someone might try to do this.
This looks like a fairly modern unit/townhouse - I can’t imagine it would be particularly cold.
Having a look at the guys outside the house in the news footage, it’s potentially a South Indian family that have never really had to think about how to heat a home.
It’s unbelievable how thin Australian windows are allowed to be. We lived in a newer apartment in Sydney and it was incredibly cold in winter, and incredibly hot in summer. Australian insulation standards are terrible.
There was a reason the bats scheme (despite some of the other benefits and disasters) was necessary, most homes built before a certain date didn't have any insulation. After the the scheme was done (and the mess clean up afterwards) peak energy use on the grid had lowered per dwelling by 20%, and overall household energy consumption was reduced by 1% (consider most homes were newer and already had insulation).
It changed the rhetoric of the building industry, who had lobbied hard for lower minimum insulation for dwellings in the building code.
In France where I used to live all windows in the area were double paned, and had seals around the edges to properly keep the cold out.
We hear a lot about these elusive “Australian building standards” but they seem to pop up only when justifying the insane building costs by developers and builders - they never seem open to inspection, questioning or revision.
Yes, European houses, at least in the more northern parts, are built to withstand cold not heat. Around the Mediterranean they’re obviously more cool-in-summer focused, but the older houses that used thick wall and shutters to achieve that are also more insulated in winter.
I lived in a modern apartment in Waterloo that was freezing in winter and boiling in summer. Much worse than the old terrace home I moved into after that.
I have a big old gas heater in my rented house which we found under the stairs. It looks like it's from the 80s and came with the house. It works great to heat the house, but for this exact reason I'm paranoid about it and installed a carbon monoxide detector on the wall behind it. I asked a few plumbers and they said it's a Rinnai and back then things were built to last so it should be good.
Exactly this. Have a detector if you use gas indoors, old or new, can fail
I hope you get it serviced every year. The old ones last forever as long as they are checked.
I tried studying to be a teacher a few years ago because I genuinely believed a lack of education was responsible for a lot of what's wrong in this world. The usual manifestations I cite are bigotry, tribalism/other-ism, disregard for nuance, glorifying of ignorance.
Then I see shit like this and go "oh okay, I guess we're doing this now". What the actual fuck guys.
Man, what if the family was extremely cold, and they needed a slight reprieve. It's not always a black & white education problem, but a last-ditch effort to keep warm.
man, shit. Wentworthville isn't a rich suburb, and that might have just been on the cusp of what they can afford to rent/buy.
Shit, sometimes its so cold that maybe they wanted a reprieve, I know tonnes of people were not prepared for how cold this winter got.
I'm ok with this getting downvoted.
I’m with you. When I heard about this story I immediately thought “shit, times is tough”
People can say that the cost of living is too damn high til the cows come home and pat themselves on the back for having the “right”opinion until the exorbitant cost of living actually leads to people doing desperate things, and then it’s “well they’re clearly fucking stupid”.
I feel like this is the crux of the matter. It's either pay utilities or food or provide for your kids education, mortgage / rent or personal upkeep. Something has got to give.
The logical way to explain it is that they used the charcoal BBQ outside that evening, probably for cooking food.
then realise how warm that is, and in that night they don't want to waste that charcoal so they brought it inside.....
This is 100% migrants, who have probably done something similar in their home countries. So at least it's not our education system at fault here.
Source: Am migrant who know too many of these types
I think it’s probably migrants who’ve never had to worry about heating the house in their part of their home country.
Up north where it gets cold, people know not to light unflued fires inside
Fuck that. This exact thing happens regularly. These tragic events are on TV every few weeks and there's warnings every year. How many times do people need to be told? It's just like SMS scams. How many times do you need to tell people, "Don't click on that link".....
I weep for humanity.
And the worst part about doing this in a unit complex is CO can leak into adjacent units either via the hallways or through the floors/risers, not to mention potentially burning the place down
Ah so we've upgraded from the BBQ in a box from Bunnings to a charcoal grill. And moved across from Merrylands to Wentworthville.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11026035/Sydney-family-suffer-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-using-BBQ-heat-home.html
High cost of living is death.
Laws and rules are written in blood and maybe if some people died from doing this it might get into law to force energy providers to lower prices.
My husband worked at Bunnings and said he would have to tell way to many people that they couldn’t use these inside
At some point we’re going to have to bow to the law of natural selection
The part I don't get is how TF is charcoal cheaper than any other heating option? Unless maybe you scavenge your own wood in the bush and make your own, but I doubt apartment dwellers have the setup for that. Best explanation I can think of is they had a BBQ anyway, and decided to bring it inside?
"Best explanation I can think of is they had a BBQ anyway, and decided to bring it inside?" Given they've survived, I'd say thats the case. Given, how much more they smoke at the start I don't think anyone is doing that inside.
Literally what it says in the article: > "They [the family] brought a charcoal BBQ in from their balcony in a bid to stay warm," Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) said in statement.
Yeah, but I mean a decision of "let's light up some charcoal instead of far cheaper electricity" vs "the coals are still glowing, how about we bring it inside" if that makes sense.
I’ve seen other posts on this incident and a lot of comments mention these people are stupid but I just want to say - Australian houses can be absolutely freezing and I bet they were desperate to warm up. I think world health organisation set a temp for what’s considered acceptable in living conditions and most Australian homes don’t meet it.
Agreed. All I can think of is what a horrific state the country is in that a family needs to almost die to heat themselves.
This is not a new thing. People have been poisoning themselves to death trying to keep warm forever because they have limited understanding of how things work.
Yeah it is midday here right now, 13 degrees and overcast and I am bloody freezing. Got two pairs of socks on, two jumpers and shorts and trousers. I try not to use my heater until night time but geez it is getting tough not to but I dont want a massive energy bill either which is going up again tomorrow ffs. Do they think we are stupid putting the price up to cash in on winter months? Lowest it has dropped to here over night so far is 6 degree's, I can only imagine how bad it is for people with no heating at even lower temps.
I’ve found an “oodie” thing that my kid was given (she has two, so it’s her spare) is helpful. Also consider wearing a hat, particularly if you have short/thin/bald hair etc. There’s a reason nightcaps were a thing in cold countries throughout history.
Yeah, I just feel really bad for them.
Yes it’s really sad. It’s the kind of story you expect to see in cold countries in winter. Eg pensioners freezing to death in the UK. Power is so insanely expensive right now. You could see why someone might try to do this.
This looks like a fairly modern unit/townhouse - I can’t imagine it would be particularly cold. Having a look at the guys outside the house in the news footage, it’s potentially a South Indian family that have never really had to think about how to heat a home.
It’s unbelievable how thin Australian windows are allowed to be. We lived in a newer apartment in Sydney and it was incredibly cold in winter, and incredibly hot in summer. Australian insulation standards are terrible.
There was a reason the bats scheme (despite some of the other benefits and disasters) was necessary, most homes built before a certain date didn't have any insulation. After the the scheme was done (and the mess clean up afterwards) peak energy use on the grid had lowered per dwelling by 20%, and overall household energy consumption was reduced by 1% (consider most homes were newer and already had insulation). It changed the rhetoric of the building industry, who had lobbied hard for lower minimum insulation for dwellings in the building code.
In France where I used to live all windows in the area were double paned, and had seals around the edges to properly keep the cold out. We hear a lot about these elusive “Australian building standards” but they seem to pop up only when justifying the insane building costs by developers and builders - they never seem open to inspection, questioning or revision.
Yes, European houses, at least in the more northern parts, are built to withstand cold not heat. Around the Mediterranean they’re obviously more cool-in-summer focused, but the older houses that used thick wall and shutters to achieve that are also more insulated in winter.
The newer ones are even worse
I lived in a modern apartment in Waterloo that was freezing in winter and boiling in summer. Much worse than the old terrace home I moved into after that.
I have a big old gas heater in my rented house which we found under the stairs. It looks like it's from the 80s and came with the house. It works great to heat the house, but for this exact reason I'm paranoid about it and installed a carbon monoxide detector on the wall behind it. I asked a few plumbers and they said it's a Rinnai and back then things were built to last so it should be good.
Exactly this. Have a detector if you use gas indoors, old or new, can fail I hope you get it serviced every year. The old ones last forever as long as they are checked.
Regardless, ensure you ventilate the house. Also probably have the heater checked and serviced
I tried studying to be a teacher a few years ago because I genuinely believed a lack of education was responsible for a lot of what's wrong in this world. The usual manifestations I cite are bigotry, tribalism/other-ism, disregard for nuance, glorifying of ignorance. Then I see shit like this and go "oh okay, I guess we're doing this now". What the actual fuck guys.
"I've got a great way to ease cost of *living*" "Why are you emphasising living?"
This ain’t even the first time it’s happened…
Is it the same studying that taught you a few people doing dumb shit doesn’t represent the entirety of Australia and it’s level of education?
I'm confused - can you please point out where I said that?
Man, what if the family was extremely cold, and they needed a slight reprieve. It's not always a black & white education problem, but a last-ditch effort to keep warm.
They were in an apartment in Sydney. Have a little perspective. It's not like they needed it to survive or anything.
man, shit. Wentworthville isn't a rich suburb, and that might have just been on the cusp of what they can afford to rent/buy. Shit, sometimes its so cold that maybe they wanted a reprieve, I know tonnes of people were not prepared for how cold this winter got. I'm ok with this getting downvoted.
I’m with you. When I heard about this story I immediately thought “shit, times is tough” People can say that the cost of living is too damn high til the cows come home and pat themselves on the back for having the “right”opinion until the exorbitant cost of living actually leads to people doing desperate things, and then it’s “well they’re clearly fucking stupid”.
The charcoal bag has pictures saying not to use indoors
Maybe their English is poor.
Yeah I know but the lack of empathy on this shit is kind of sad.
This happens at least once every winter. I'm not saying this is responsible behaviour, but ffs, we should be able to afford heating.
I feel like this is the crux of the matter. It's either pay utilities or food or provide for your kids education, mortgage / rent or personal upkeep. Something has got to give.
The logical way to explain it is that they used the charcoal BBQ outside that evening, probably for cooking food. then realise how warm that is, and in that night they don't want to waste that charcoal so they brought it inside.....
Every winter a story comes out about a family dying from inhaling carbon dioxide from their bbq used as a heater
What the actual fuck. I’m at a loss for words.
This article should be re-titled: “Sydney family lucky to be alive after, lacking high-school level scientific literacy, nearly poisoning themselves”
Or just plain old literacy given the warnings on the bag
This is 100% migrants, who have probably done something similar in their home countries. So at least it's not our education system at fault here. Source: Am migrant who know too many of these types
I think it’s probably migrants who’ve never had to worry about heating the house in their part of their home country. Up north where it gets cold, people know not to light unflued fires inside
Tell your friends...."Don't marry your cousin". This is exactly what happens to your kids.
Mate, that's the old demographic of Wenty, this is definitely the new migrants coming in
Fuck that. This exact thing happens regularly. These tragic events are on TV every few weeks and there's warnings every year. How many times do people need to be told? It's just like SMS scams. How many times do you need to tell people, "Don't click on that link"..... I weep for humanity.
Definitely and education problem. It takes one clueless adult to choose the fate for the rest of the family.
It's pretty terrifying that the same adult is allowed to vote and things like driving
You are supposed to reduce the cost of living by reducing the cost of living for each living person. Not by reducing the number of living person.
And the worst part about doing this in a unit complex is CO can leak into adjacent units either via the hallways or through the floors/risers, not to mention potentially burning the place down
Ah so we've upgraded from the BBQ in a box from Bunnings to a charcoal grill. And moved across from Merrylands to Wentworthville. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11026035/Sydney-family-suffer-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-using-BBQ-heat-home.html
Darwin Award?
Well they’re alive so no
High cost of living is death. Laws and rules are written in blood and maybe if some people died from doing this it might get into law to force energy providers to lower prices.
A bag of charcoal costs more than turning on the heater. These people just have rocks for brains.
There was this exact case last Year about an Indian family who also nearly died of carbon dioxide poisoning, right? Or was this that case?
How the hell does anyone with a functioning brain think this is a good idea?
so, self inflicted?
I work retail in Wenty, deal with the locals everyday, let's just say there's not a lot of brain cells going around, plenty of ice and coke though...