Draughts: Keeping the heat in is a key element in the overall comfort and health of a home. When you turn on your heating, you want to warm up your home, not your neighbourhood.
Draughts - what to look for
Inspect around doors, window frames, bare floorboards, cat doors and ceiling hatches. If there's a hole larger than around 3mm (or that would fit the edge of a $2 coin) it would pay to get this fixed. There are a range of draught excluders available from DIY stores.
A note about open fires: these might seem like a cozy addition to a home but in reality they are very inefficient heaters and let a lot of warm air escape up the chimney - it's like having a window open all the time. It's better to close this off either permanently (capping the chimney) or temporarily, with a balloon (available from some DIY stores) or just a bag full of old rags. Remember to make this visible to any future occupant, in case they try to use the fireplace!
Gap under a front door. Fit a draught excluder to fix this source of draught.
This window cannot fully close leaving a large gap around the frame.
This ceiling hatch has holes which should be patched. Holes near the ceiling are especially bad as warm air rises and will escape through holes such as this.
When they're not burning, open fireplaces act like a giant hole letting warm air escape. HomeFit recommends either blocking open fireplaces - e.g. with a bag of old clothes - or having the fireplace permanently capped or removed. Alternatively get a wood burner retrofitted.
Why having no draughts is important
Keeping the heat in is a key element for good home performance and the overall comfort and health of a dwelling. When you turn on your heaters, you want to warm up your home, not lose that heat outside. If you’re a landlord, you’ll need to make sure that any gaps or cracks are filled to meet the rental standards.
Gaps, cracks and holes in the building envelope, especially around windows and doors, account for up to 10% of heat loss from an average home. It doesn’t matter how much insulation is in your attic if you have a howling gale coming in around the front door.