R value of windows including double glazed is pretty poor.  Well fitted drapes or blinds add about 0.25 to R values. 

Do you have curtains?

Good question ^^

I really doubt the house will not be insulated. The only way that is possible, is if the insulation was stolen between the preline inspection and when gib was installed. Insulation is a requirement so not a choice the builder makes. 

Wow, haven't seen that one before. Good spotting to pick that up. Guess there are cowboys in every trade, but I don't imagine it would be that common as the companies would soon lose all of their work / accreditation. 

Unrelated, but the guys doing my place insulated the whole garage as I had asked for the ceiling to be done. Not sure if they didn't get the memo or what, but I wasn't going to bring it up lol.

Ceiling insulation make the biggest difference to a house at about 42%, but walls are 24%. That implies windows are about 25% as well. Not much you can do about walls once they're closed. You could get a thermal camera to do an inspection, US$200 for one that plugs into your phone on Amazon, $400 for standalone. The services that do this for you are fairly expensive I think.

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42 percent of household heat is lost through the roof. Walls account for around 24 percent of heat loss and 10 percent of heat is lost through floors (source)

If you're careful you could pop plugs off walls to see what you see behind it. Don't do this with the sockets live, turn off the RCD for that circuit if going with this idea. It's free, but obviously at your own risk / don't sue me. 

timmmay:

 

<snip> The services that do this for you are fairly expensive I think.

 

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42 percent of household heat is lost through the roof. Walls account for around 24 percent of heat loss and 10 percent of heat is lost through floors (source)

 

FWIW in Wellington, Matt @ seek-a-leak is great for thermal imaging services and moisture checking. Let me have a play with his _very_ cool toys and explained exactly how it worked and the limitations of the service and provided a useful summary/report afterwards. Was about $300 for our place IIRC. This was a few years ago though.

Pinpoint:

 

Hi there,

 

 

 

We have a new build home. This is the first winter and I am really wondering if our house has been properly insulated! 

 

It takes the heat pump a long time to warm the living and it is not even warm in all corners. You can still feel cold differences.
It also feels like the cold is coming in trough the double glazed windows. We quite a large window surface. Almost equal to the wall surface.

 

I also feel that the heat pump might not be sufficient for this space.

Are there companies that can test your home?

 

 

 

Much appreciated.

 

1. where is your home

2. how large is the home

3. how big is the heat pump

the min standard insulation in strong cold wind area will give the effect you describe, esp if the heatpump is undersized

billgates: @Froglotion you missed one another way of missing insulation which is very very common in new house builds and it also happened to us. Cowboy school dropout insulation installers on minimum wage that do not fill the insulation to cover the entire depth of the stud frame specially odd sizes of stud frames that are not standard 600 x 600 which you simply just slot in insulation into as friction fit but these odd frame sizes which you are bound to get due to design of your house in few places, the cowboys take an offcut and do front facing of the insulation so you think that it's a job well done until you push that insulation back and you now have all of a sudden 80% cavity. We checked ours the Friday evening insulation installers finished and started to push back insulation and roughly 25% of the walls were done this way. I messaged our builder and said you are not putting the GIB up on Monday. Builder came and saw and was fuming as they felt it tarnished their reputation so called the regional manager of Mammoth who came in same day and was also fuming. Got the installation company back in and showed them the rubbish job and got them to fill it all again including in cavity that was where stud noggings were installed. Credit to the builder in the sense that we specifically wanted Mammoth so they picked 1 of 2 Mammoth recommended insulation company installer in Waikato they found online rather than their own installer who installs Pink Batts so they thought to not check their work thinking it would be up to standard.

wow that is terrible!

@Dugimodo:

Nope, don't really want to either.

@Froglotion:

Good question ^^

I really doubt the house will not be insulated. The only way that is possible, is if the insulation was stolen between the preline inspection and when gib was installed. Insulation is a requirement so not a choice the builder makes. 

The insulation is there. Just wonder if it has been done properly!

@billgates; I wish I had done this!!

@ timmmay:

Interesting. I'll look in to this!!

MDF: I'll definitely look in to this type of service too!! Thanks!

 

1. where is your home

 

2. how large is the home

 

3. how big is the heat pump

 

the min standard insulation in strong cold wind area will give the effect you describe, esp if the heatpump is undersized

 

Have mentioned that on the first page. It has been days without wind here. Which is exceptional as we are right between harbour and ocean.

Thanks everyone!

If you don't plan on using curtains etc, just get used to needing to have the heatpump running more often and for longer. That's just how it works really. Going by the above table, you lose eight times as much heat through your windows than you would through a wall. Doesn't matter how well insulated the walls (or lack there of in this case), the windows are where your heat will be going. No mystery really. IMO.

Did you find a calculator that allowed you to input the percentage if wall that is windows? I couldn't find one. That would make a difference as to how much capacity you need. 4kW won't be assuming half the walls are windows. it's a pretty big area, you may just need to allow more warm up time. It has a lot of work to do and it will be constantly battling the windows.

Minimum building codes suck, and that's the standard houses are built to. 

Wellingtondave:

Minimum building codes suck, and that's the standard houses are built to.