As others have said, it depends on your environment and view. If the house is located in a particularly hostile environment (e.g. west coast Tasmania, central Australian desert) or experiences wild swings between the seasons (e.g. Snowy Mountains) then windows are your friend. In temperate / sub tropical areas like Brisbane then verandahs are the way to go. Windows can have great thermal properties IF they're double glazed which has better insulation properties than say walls in a QLDer house with a timber stud frame sandwiched between weatherboards and VJs. It also depends on the orientation of the house.

Hmm potentially although I suspect I couldn't reach to the back of it. Definitely not to do the alternating coloured panels I initially wanted but maybe with a roller on a pole....thanks for your suggestion, will look into it!

attached plan as stated is about 169sqm but the difference between 10cm and 20cm outside walls was about 10sqm (ie 150sqm) ...allowing for the internal walls or the actual size of the footprint including the eaves? could be where they find the extra ...best solution is to ask them to explain how they calculate the size

Thank you you, This is exactly what I couldnt find! (Wrong google search terms..!). Our Councils website is useless, search function doesnt work & hard to find info, but will call them in due course too, in the meantime this will help. Cheers