Heating in typical NZ homes?

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#2715342 29-May-2021 21:35

We are not Norway but pretty similar temperatures to the UK. Where most houses have double glazing and heating in all rooms.

Why is a lot of our housing stock cold? Low wage economy, expensive energy and expensive to fit out a house with modern insulation would be my guesses. Welcome to a country with a small population in the middle of nowhere....

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#2715346 29-May-2021 21:44

lxsw20:

We are not Norway but pretty similar temperatures to the UK. Where most houses have double glazing and heating in all rooms.

Why is a lot of our housing stock cold? Low wage economy, expensive energy and expensive to fit out a house with modern insulation would be my guesses. Welcome to a country with a small population in the middle of nowhere....

Pretty bang on with the first guess.

We pay $360 for this crappy apartment and an extra $50-110 a week gets me a lovely double glazed, fully insulated, fully sound house/apartment that will withstand earthquakes and New Zealand winters whilst not being an absolute robbery to heat up.

Lucky I live in Christchurch and not Auckland where the rent prices up there are literal daylight robbery and the problems are probably much worse.

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#2715376 30-May-2021 07:57

I live in an old stone house with a 1970s extension for kitchen and living area. Roof insulated and extension also with some wall insulation. I've banned electric heaters so only have the 10Kwh wood burner and a heat exchanger system to back two bedrooms, set to click on when living area reaches 19-20 Deg.

This is fine for, I like the bedrooms a bit cooler, only ever light condensation on the windows some mornings. Dehumidifier on hallway set to 65%.

Costs about $500 each year for 10m³ wood, $80 electric bill in the winter with hot water.

Oamaru so gets too approx-5 sometimes, commonly 4 deg overnight.

Actually felt colder and damper in my old Auckland houses typical NZ oversized shed construction with electric oil heaters.

I find anything over 21 Deg too warm for me inside and have trained rest of the house to feel the same :).

Didn't stack up the fire last night and it went out about 2am, woke up this morning to 16ish in the kitchen and 15 in the bedroom. Even accounting for some Stockholm syndrome after living in NZ for 15yrs that's pretty clement when there's a winter storm blowing outside the window .

eracode

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#2715377 30-May-2021 08:14

neb:
Batman:

cool. did you have a question?

Or in other word "please phrase your question in the form of a question" :-).

What are you both on about? There is a question in the OP.

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#2715454 30-May-2021 11:35

Spyware:

So you say, I live in a 1958 built house with no wall insulation, two heatpumps set on 27 and running 24/7. Currently 22.2 in most of house, 12 outside.

House built in the 19050s here. We don't have wall insulation (except in new areas like the bathroom) but have underfloor wool insulation (between house and ground) and (thin) pinkbatts on the ceiling cavity (which we want to replace when doing the roof soon).

We have one heatpump in the dining/lounge area that is usually set to 23c. It comes off automatically at midnight (or manually before that by the last person going to bed in a house of two adults and a teenager). It comes on at 6.30am automatically and usually stays on during the day (I WFH now) or off if I leave the house.

When the heatpump is off the lounge area seems to be about 10c higher than outside but the bedrooms usually are only about 5c higher than outside in the mornings. Not terribly uncomfortable but chilly enough to feel it.

We do have a hear transfer between lounge and bedrooms but it only brings the temperature up around 5c during the winter so bedrooms are still colder than the lounge area most of the times.

We do have a dehumidifier that can be moved around but most of the times it's in the bathroom. It's set to 50% so it runs on and off during the day, more after showers. Sometimes moved to bedrooms because of condensation in the morning.

The main problem is that sometimes even with the heatpump on the air feels warm but you are still cold - perhaps because the walls themselves are still not warm enough. We can feel this more when the heatpump was just turned on or in very cold days when the house has not been heated for a while.

This is what annoys me most. The felling cold even when the air is warm.

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#2715458 30-May-2021 11:42

@jarledb:

How I long for Norwegian houses with proper insulation. -20° outside and +22° inside in all of the house. Bathrooms with underfloor heating. Hallways with underfloor heating. Living rooms with underfloor heating.

Shouldn't really have to heat the house at all when its +15° outside. Didn't have to in Norway.

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Then I mentioned you...

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#2715459 30-May-2021 11:44

gzt: Double glazing. Recent insulation update. 5kw heatpump in the lounge. 14 hours a day in winter on 22 deg costs around $50 month. 60w heated towel rail in the bathroom 24/7 in winter takes the edge off in there. Sbowerdome makes a big difference to winter showers and bathroom temp.

Yep, have heated towel rail and showerdome.

Have a Panasonic heatpump in the lounge - how did you get to the $50/month figure? Do you have a separate meter device for it or just by pricing the max units it would use?

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#2715476 30-May-2021 12:47

Old 1920s drafty uninsulated DIY farmhouse. Adequate wood heater in lounge/kitchen, unlimited free firewood in surroundings. Portable gas heater when in computer room.

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billgates

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#2715477 30-May-2021 12:57

Our home is a 7 month old bespoke 2020 build. We went with mammoth insulation. We got a Mitsubishi ducted aircon system and seperate Mitsubishi ERV system so in winters heat exchange is always ON thus using less heating power of the air con system. Ours stays at 18 degrees max in morning for couple of hours and 3 to 4 hours in evenings when we come home.

Rest we leave it on Dry mode which retains bulk of the heat and provides bit of dry air specially if we know it will be humid overnight. If it's going to really chilly overnight, we leave the heat ON at 17 degrees and drop the fan speed to slowest so that we do not feel sweaty or stuffy in bed at night. Best thing is the WiFi module.inside the ducted air con unit. We can turn ON the heating an hour before we come back home in evening and if we feel too much or less heating early mornings, we can easily control it via phone app rather than getting up from the bed.

Do whatever you want to do man.

antonknee

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#2715480 30-May-2021 13:08

New build (2020) spec apartment in Auckland. Double glazed and insulated (but to the minimum called for in the building code). It’s tolerable with no heating, just chuck a jumper on. Running a 2kW convection heater here and there for extra warmth in the lounge and bedroom a couple hours at a time - not cheap at 60c an hour. Electric blanket too most nights.

Condensation only in the bathroom and not enough to worry about.

Have lived in terrible (but expensive) rental houses where we spent $100s a month to heat them, so much happier now.

MadEngineer

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#2715492 30-May-2021 13:52

1939 home here,a single floor console heatpump set to 19 or 20 works well to heat most of the house. Windows are only wet on sub zero days but we would open most of the windows before 9am to dry them and to cycle through fresh air. We use a dehumidifier on occasion. Insulation in the ceiling only plus what was installed in the walls of the bathroom during its renovation.

We’re getting underfloor insulation done in the next few months. Silly not to when it’s 90% subsidised. Ground sheet will be installed at the same time.

We want to get double glazing installed but everyone is booked out 6months plus atm.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

timmmay

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#2715494 30-May-2021 13:58

freitasm:

The main problem is that sometimes even with the heatpump on the air feels warm but you are still cold - perhaps because the walls themselves are still not warm enough. We can feel this more when the heatpump was just turned on or in very cold days when the house has not been heated for a while.

This is what annoys me most. The felling cold even when the air is warm.

My experience is that you don't need to just heat the air, you need to heat the sofa, the bed, the walls, etc. Once the whole house is heated through it will stay warm longer, especially if you get more batts in the ceiling - assume you have a roof narrow roof space? Putting oil heaters in bedrooms coming on 4pm turning off 7am would probably do the trick - works for us. They're silent other than the thermostat click, which is an advantage over heat pumps.

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#2715496 30-May-2021 14:01

And to answer the question raised for this thread, no, only the main living room requires heating

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

MadEngineer

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#2715498 30-May-2021 14:04

timmmay:
freitasm:

The main problem is that sometimes even with the heatpump on the air feels warm but you are still cold - perhaps because the walls themselves are still not warm enough. We can feel this more when the heatpump was just turned on or in very cold days when the house has not been heated for a while.

This is what annoys me most. The felling cold even when the air is warm.

My experience is that you don't need to just heat the air, you need to heat the sofa, the bed, the walls, etc. Once the whole house is heated through it will stay warm longer, especially if you get more batts in the ceiling - assume you have a roof narrow roof space? Putting oil heaters in bedrooms coming on 4pm turning off 7am would probably do the trick - works for us. They're silent other than the thermostat click, which is an advantage over heat pumps.

once our heatpump has raised the temperature to the desired comfort level its roughly 40-50cm mouse wheel fan spins at an inaudible speed.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

timmmay

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#2715503 30-May-2021 14:14

All of the heat pumps I have had a significantly louder than oil heaters, Even if it is just the air movement and I silent room. I suspect I have more sensitive hearing than average.

Heating the whole house including its contents and the walls is really key to making a house feel warm. Our house rarely Trolls below about 20° even if heating is turned off at 10:00 p.m. and not turned on again until 6am because I have insulated it quite well, and because it is heated well through. We discovered this by accident when we had a new baby and never turned the heating off, we were surprised at the heating bill did not go up much.

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