- By Hanover Plumbing
- In Central Heating, Gas
- Tags Central Heating, heating stats, Home Heating, NZ Homes, Radiators
Why is NZ Behind in Healthy Homes & Heating?
Imagine a cold winter’s night, made cosy by a fire burning in the lounge. The wood crackles, heat pours from the fireplace and everyone is warm – hot even! But, now it’s bedtime, so you open the lounge door into a cold hallway and walk into an even colder bedroom. Not quite the cosy picture you imagined, is it?
But this is the reality for many people in New Zealand. A country where houses are more likely not to have insulation or central heating systems. Heating has typically been approached on a room-by-room basis here. And we emphasize wood-burning solutions because, in the past, wood was cheap and plentiful.
Half of New Zealanders Live in Cold Houses
The 2014 New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS) found that nearly half of New Zealand adults reported living in a cold house, with more than 1 in 5 individuals (21 percent) feeling their homes were often or always cold. This is often due to a lack of insulation and a lack of proper heating. In addition, most homes do not have double-glazed windows, which contributes further to the difficulty of keeping them warm.
Most of the housing stock in New Zealand was built well before adequate regulations to support warm and healthy homes existed in the building code. It wasn’t until 1978 that all new houses were required to meet minimum thermal insulation requirements. These requirements have been updated a few times since then – even as recently as 2004. As of only 2007, new houses are required to have double-glazed windows, and a high standard of insulation. (Some may argue the insulation values could be raised higher yet when compared to other countries.)
Start With Insulation
The majority of New Zealand homes were built before these higher standards came into effect. This explains why nearly half of New Zealand adults report living in a cold home. There have been great strides made in retrofitting older houses with the Warm Up New Zealand program providing subsidies to install insulation in older houses. However, without pairing insulation with double-glazed windows and central heating, the results don’t always equal a warm house. But it’s certainly an improvement.
A 2018 survey completed by the Government states that 1 in 5 people in New Zealand said their homes were always or often colder than they would like in the winter. And around 1 in 3 people reported problems with dampness or mould in their homes.
The World Health Organisation’s suggested minimum indoor temperature is 18°C, or 21°C if there are babies in the household. The average winter temperature in New Zealand living rooms is 13.5°C.
Source: https://www.stats.govt.nz/infographics/the-state-of-housing-in-aotearoa-new-zealand
Source: https://www.stats.govt.nz/infographics/the-state-of-housing-in-aotearoa-new-zealand
Get Hanover Plumbing To Install Your Central Heating
It’s time to start increasing the quality of New Zealand homes and making them warmer. Hanover Plumbing is a proud provider of central heating solutions that keep the whole house warm, efficiently and effectively. Contact us to discuss how we can help warm up your house today.
