What we know about Somerville homes
Orchards first
Somerville was originally an orchard town, known from the early 1900s until World War II for its fruit. It sits 49 km south-east of the CBD in the Shire of Mornington Peninsula, part of an urban enclave on Western Port.
The growth years
The population grew in the late 1980s and the early to mid 1990s, with new estates such as Wellington Road and Highfield Way.
Houses and units
Of 4,322 occupied homes in 2021, 82.3% were separate houses and 17.1% semi-detached, terrace or townhouses. Flats were just 0.2%.
Owner-occupied
47.5% of homes were owned with a mortgage and 32.3% owned outright. Only 16.0% were rented.
The jobs most likely to come up
An ageing heater. By Solar Victoria's reckoning, a system past 15 years old usually uses more than three times the energy of a modern reverse cycle unit. If yours is gas, a gasfitter should be servicing it at least every two years, as Energy Safe Victoria recommends. When the service report starts listing problems, compare a new gas heater with reverse cycle on our ducted heating in Melbourne page.
Cooling for summer. If your house already has gas ducted heating, ask whether it can take add-on cooling. Rinnai says that depends on the heater's age, model, capacity and condition, and not every heater can. Otherwise a split in the living room or main bedroom is the simple fix.
A townhouse or unit. With no roof space to spare, a reverse cycle split usually makes more sense than ducted. Put the outdoor unit where it won't keep the neighbours up.
What we'd do
If we lived in Somerville
We'd find out exactly how old the heater is (the model plate or the last service report will tell you) before deciding anything. If it's healthy, service it and add cooling only where you need it. If it's tired, plan the replacement in autumn rather than when it fails on a cold night.
Send us your job and your 3912 postcode. Local installers who handle that kind of work, licences checked, will see it, and the one who takes it is the only one who gets your contact details. If no one near Somerville takes it within 48 hours, installers in other parts of Victoria may see it.
