Under the healthy homes regulations, all rental properties must have qualifying fixed heating in the main living area that can heat that area to at least 18deg on the coldest days of the year.
The government has made an online calculator to help landlords to figure out how much heating capacity is required.
https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/heating-tool/
I have just run the calculator on the lounge in my own house. And it said that I need 15.9KW of heating capacity. This is for a large room with no insulation and lots of windows. So I was expecting it to need approx 9KW or so.
I already have a 14KW heatpump to heat that lounge. Which so far seems to be able to do so. I had previously assumed that that heatpump was way oversized for that room. So I was not expecting the results to say that it would be undersized or at best, only barely complying. And in reality, I also need to compensate for the outside temperature (assumed to be 1deg for Auckland) in calculating the heatpump capacity. As the 14KW probably relates to an assumed outside temp of 7deg or so.
Although I haven't yet accurately measured the room and window sizes yet. So I will get some accurate measurements and re run the calculator, and see if my 14KW heatpump will actually comply. (as well as figure out the capacity of my heatpump at 1deg outside temp).
How does everyone else's lounges compare? Does anyone have sufficient heating to already comply? Especially rental properties that already comply. Does anyone have a lounge that is small enough, that a 2.4KW electric resistance heater is deemed suitable?
My house is owner occupied, so this is purely an academic exercise for me in relation to my house. I'm curious as to what % of GZ members have compliant heating in their houses. (assuming that all houses and not just rentals are required to comply). And whether the results of the heating calculator match with your personal experience of heating your lounge. - Calculator says you have insufficient heating, but you can still keep your lounge warm. Or the calculator says that you have enough heating, but you are still unable to keep your lounge warm enough.
Also guessing that GZ members would be more likely on average to have enough heating installed compared to the general population. So it would be interesting to see how many of us actually do have enough heating capacity installed. And in relation to rental properties, Will they all likely to have sufficient heating installed by the deadline? (July 2021 for new tenancies, July 2024 for existing tenancies and HNZ properties) Or will there be gross non compliance in 2 years time?