Heating in typical NZ homes?

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rayonline

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#285995 29-May-2021 15:59

We are beginning to go into winter now. Wellington and our lounge measures 14 degrees with our wall thermometer. We generally don't use any heating until it is dinner time or after dinner time and that's the lounge and then when we are in the bedrooms we use the heaters althou I have resisted in using them.

I know it is this NZ kiwi way. In the past NZ homes were not insulated and until now they are and the single heating requirement is a fireplace or a gas heater or a heat pump but do even new homes require bedrooms or hallways to be heated? So it is the same old right jumping from room to room and to a cold laundry / bathroom. Wearing puff jackets and thermals in the day time and hot drinks to keep warm, haha. Again like many NZ households we took up the initiative and installed a single heat pump in the lounge and added ceiling insulation but we didn't do wall insulation due to a lack of access.

Cheers.

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#2715257 29-May-2021 16:17

cool. did you have a question? no hallways not heated.

rayonline

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#2715260 29-May-2021 16:24

Batman:

cool. did you have a question? no hallways not heated.

I am just wondering what kind of heating others members here use. Hallways isn't needed, bedrooms are not needed as well right? I know a decent heating is required in the living room + ventilation in kitchen and bathroom but necessarily heating. I hear occasionally people installing multiple heat pumps in NZ or in the hallways but those would be the minority right?

Spyware

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#2715266 29-May-2021 16:40

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.

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k1w1k1d

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#2715269 29-May-2021 16:43

Heating/insulation in new homes probably depends on whether the owner has it built for them or whether it is a mass produced spec build.

The former hopefully has a good heating system with good insulation.

The latter will probably just be absolute minimum everything to meet building code.

Batman

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#2715270 29-May-2021 16:45

house has sheetty insulation. so i installed a heat pump in every room and every living area. deep south cold winter 300 bucks heating a month

k1w1k1d

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#2715273 29-May-2021 16:56

1950's red brick house in Christchurch with good ceiling insulation, but nothing in walls or underfloor.

Log burner in open plan dining/living/kitchen area is the only heat source. Nice and toasty at the moment.

Bedrooms can get down to 10C on really cold nights. Lots of window condensation in mornings.

Currently looking at retrofit double glazing and ventilation system(DVS or proper HRV).

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richms

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#2715275 29-May-2021 17:03

I only heat the bedroom, and the workrooms when I am using them. Bathroom stays cold, because I am only in there for a short time and its not that cold.

No point heating the loungeroom or kitchen since I never use them.

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timmmay

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#2715276 29-May-2021 17:14

1920s ish standard house. When I bought it 12 years ago it was uninsulated with a fireplace. I insulated ceiling walls and under floor, double glazed, installed vapor barrier. For years we had two heat pumps (8kw and 7kw) and oil heaters in bedrooms. We're getting a 10kw ducted heat pump installed for the bedrooms / lounge, the kitchen has the 7kw pump. We keep the house about 23 degrees all year around, regardless of the weather outside. Even between the old heat pump being removed and the new one going in we're using fan heaters to keep the house 21-22 degrees.

My Dad on the other hand told me in Mosgiel the other day his house was 10 degrees inside when it was -6 outside, they turn heating on for a while each day. On NZ super people can't afford to properly heat their homes all the time, even with an efficient heat pump, the wear more clothes.

nolanz

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#2715278 29-May-2021 17:22

We built, so we chose a small Mitsubishi heatpump for the lounge which we deliberately made small (only 2 of us most times) and able to be closed off in winter.

A large Mitsubishi heatpump in the open plan kitchen/dining room for the rest of the house because just about everywhere can be opened up to heat as required.

We just keep the unused areas closed off when we are not using them.

While we choose where we heat as we feel the need, both heatpumps are set to automatically stop the temperature falling below 15 degrees.

Alexa can control them from anywhere in the house, and cellphone if we are out.

jarledb

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#2715279 29-May-2021 17:23

You Kiwis are crazy.

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.

Last apartment I lived in before moving to NZ it was -10° outside before we needed to turn on any other heating than the underfloor heating in the bathroom.

Live in a small house now, built in 2017. It is not bad, but because we want to ventilate the place we let the windows be slightly open (not sure what it is called). Which means we have to turn on heat pump and heaters to keep the house warm when it dips below +15°.

In Norway we would have thick insulated walls and air vents where the air picks up some heat before coming into the house.

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davidcole

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#2715282 29-May-2021 17:29

I’ve got gas fired water radiators here. Had no thermostat when we moved it, just a timer. I’ve made a “thermostat” with openHAB taking temps from our main bedrooms upstairs to start the system.

I also have a manual switch for a fan assistant
Central heating in another lounge, but we’ll probably add radiators in those rooms as well. I did want underfloor heating from the hot water system, but it it too expensive as it needs temperature reducing etc.

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tdgeek

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#2715289 29-May-2021 17:53

jarledb:

You Kiwis are crazy.

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.

Last apartment I lived in before moving to NZ it was -10° outside before we needed to turn on any other heating than the underfloor heating in the bathroom.

Live in a small house now, built in 2017. It is not bad, but because we want to ventilate the place we let the windows be slightly open (not sure what it is called). Which means we have to turn on heat pump and heaters to keep the house warm when it dips below +15°.

In Norway we would have thick insulated walls and air vents where the air picks up some heat before coming into the house.

This isn't Norway, we down;t get anywhere close to those temps. If we did, we would have better solutions. I'm in ChCh it can get cold here, but thats only about -6 outside at worst, or +6 all day in mid Winter. Our house is 2011, large, two heatpumps which are not turned on all the time and often are on but not running due to thermostat (set to 22), so the insulation seems pretty ok

neb

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#2715330 29-May-2021 20:44

Batman:
cool. did you have a question?

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

gzt

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#2715333 29-May-2021 21:07

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.

MaxineN

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#2715336 29-May-2021 21:23

In my incredibly crappy apartment I've got my heatpump set at 28 continuously for about 15 hours a day to keep it at around 20-22c in doors. Bedroom gets about an hours worth with a convection heater with a fan at night to try and bring it up to the same range as the lounge(they're basically connected via 2 doors so heat transfer can happen).

Crappy apartment is not insulated or has it had the double glazing treatment and I'm fairly sure that the roof isn't sealed and the cold wind can get in from the top where our exposed light fittings are.

I should probably get out of this apartment.

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