She loves the northern suburbs location but inside the house in summer it "just becomes unbearably hot".

Winter means extra layers of clothes as the temperature plunges to 10 degrees inside.

"I have to wear a beanie to bed," she says.

With no airconditioning and gas heating in just one room, Melbourne's extreme weather takes its toll on Ms Carville and her daughters, Nimu, 8, and Ciku, 5.

Her gas bills are nearly three times higher in winter than other seasons.

She says better insulation, protection against drafts and higher quality awnings or curtains are affordable improvements that would make a big difference for lots of renters like her.

But the short-term nature of many residential tenancies discourages renters from forking out themselves to improve their homes, she says.

Now Environment Victoria is campaigning for the state government to introduce minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes, saying renters are bearing far more than their fair share of the costs for inefficient homes.

So far more than 4000 people have signed a petition that says too many renters are paying unaffordable heating and cooling bills and living in unhealthy conditions.

Environment Victoria efficiency campaigner Anne Martinelli​ said most of Victoria's houses were little more than "glorified tents".

"That means a lot of our expensive heating and cooling is just blowing out of our leaky houses and being wasted," she said. "And our rental properties are even worse, because there's little incentive for landlords to invest because they're not the ones paying the energy bills."

She said features including insulation and draft-sealing should be affordable for most landlords without the need to raise rents.

Ms Carville insists she has a good landlord and says she has not asked to improve the energy efficiency of the house, which has been recently painted and some kitchen renovations completed.

Ms Carville, an epidemiologist, has now bought a house in Preston and will move soon.

But Environment Victoria argues the regulatory system is weak for renters with many reluctant to seek improvements because of insecure tenancies and fear of rent increases or eviction.

The state government is now conducting a wide-ranging review of rental laws, with decisions on a recently released options paper due in the first half of this year.

A government spokeswoman said utilities were a big cost for renters "which is why we're asking for responses on minimum standards for rental properties".

A draft plan by the NSW government for energy efficient homes put forward a range of options, including minimum efficiency standards before homes can be leased.

Swinburne University associate professor of housing Wendy Stone said with one in four Australian households renting, landlords should carry more responsibility for ensuring their properties were energy efficient.

She said many tenants, particularly those on low incomes, could not afford to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

"Tenants are already bearing a very high price for their tenancy," she said.