It has been nearly 2 years since I first arrived in New Zealand. My first experience of New Zealand housing was a drafty, cold and damp house with no heating. The New Zealand government is making changes to improve insulation, one of which is to bring in a policy of installing double glazing in all newly built houses. This said, only tonight I was chatting to my colleague who said that he has no heating what so ever in his house.

Dampness and condensation appear to be a problem here and so other devices have appeared on the market to reduce this, these include stand alone dehumidifiers, DVS and heat recovery which all take air from the loft space and pump it around the house. Another option is a heat transfer unit which takes heat from the living room which is usually the warmest room in the house, and pumps it to different parts of the home such as the bedrooms. One of the main causes of condensation in New Zealand homes are single glazed windows and worse of all the Aluminium frames which they are fitted in, even with double glazing.

In recent years a new form of heating has appeared on the scene, and this is Heat Pumps. These are electric heaters and look like air conditioning units that you would normally find in shops and offices. The company's claim that the units are cheap, clean, economical and quiet to run. The units are usually placed in a single room or hallway and are designed to heat an area. If you want to heat a home it would be necessary to leave all the doors open.

Central heating as we know it has started to appear in New Zealand, but is currently only sold to 30% of New Zealanders, the other 70% of sales are to Brits like myself who miss the even and economical warmth that it provides through a home. It really is great being able to wake up in the morning to a warm home, and most importantly a warm bathroom. I have also been able to turn off my DVS system which was installed in the property by the previous owner. I had 4 companies provide a quote and after being let down by one of them, I decided to offer the contract to Savona.

To give you a guide on how much it costs to run gas central heating in NZ, I have a 140sq/m home and on a week day have my heating on for 6 hours, I also use gas for hot water and cooking. My daily cost is about $4 per day.

The installation cost for the complete central heating system was $9000 (£3477) 

A report from the Home Energy Rating Scheme says that Insulation only became mandatory for New Zealand homes in 1977 – as a result we have over 300,000 homes that are old, cold and poorly insulated, and our houses compare poorly against other countries in the OECD. Lack of insulation means any heat generated is lost quickly and waste which means these homes waste energy and money – and they can be uncomfortable to live in. New Zealand also has one of highest rates of asthma in world – cold, damp homes are a contributor. A study has shown that the health benefits of insulation include fewer hospital admissions for respiratory illness, less GP visits, and fewer sick days off work or school.

Savona Website: http://www.savona.co.nz

Links to other alternative heating and ventilation systems:
http://www.dvs.co.nz/
http://www.hrv.co.nz/
http://www.heatpumps.co.nz
http://www.hotchilly.co.nz/