Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

The fires down here have been going full bore since May & it was the Kiwis that lit theirs first. Wimps :nod:

It is all topsy turvey. Today has been fine with sun - and you do need the sun here - however there have been several days and weeks of torrential rains with a very cold bite to them.

Now The Ranges are covered in snow . More than I have ever seen so it tells me that somewhere has been getting a huge dump.

You don't want too warm for a winter . It encourages vermin that then decimates the birdlife. We want the birdlife , right?

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Fire back on last night here in Torbay.
Firkin ridiculous - clocks went fwd last night!! We had staved off having the fire on during September as it's a bit of house policy - a couple of nights we did resort to cozying down under blankets but we tried!!
Right now it's hideous - utter monsoon rain - about as bad as I have EVER seen it. Black as night, and not warm. Will be dashing out to the woodshed if the rain breaks to get more wood for tonight too.

Not happy.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Take one of these they're slow release to get you through Spring :eek::p

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Those medicinal compounds are clearly not efficacious in every case. :rofl:

Our heatpump has been on every night since mid-May and not showing any signs that it will be made redundant any time soon.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Central heating? That's something I miss. We're in the Bay of Plenty and although it doesn't get cold like Otago in winter, a more efficient full house system wouldn't go amiss. My advice to any newcomers to NZ is don't buy a house that doesn't at least have double glazing and a heat pump, even in the north island. So anything built before 2007 probably won't have it. After 7 years and 3 moves we've finally got it and it does make a difference, still cold in bathrooms and bedrooms though.
Still got my electric blanket on as well!

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Bit generic - up north of Auckland you don't really need it. This year we haven't used any heating (and my wife doesn't like cold)! Not sure if this was a typical Winter though. A reversible heat pump might be useful in the Summer though :-)

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

I did say the Bay of Plenty, and don't forget we Brits are a bit woosy, we do like our c/heating.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Have any of you fitted central heating over there or live in a house that has it? Is it expensive (I think I already know the answer to that one!).

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

I don't think anyone has c/heating in the north island, not sure about the far south but I suspect most have heat converters. They are quite efficient but heat only the room they are installed in so you'd need several. Perhaps a south islander could answer your query.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

There's no mains Gas in most of NZ so you'd be relying on bottles of LPG which would be very expensive. Having a central heating system fitted similar to what you get in the UK would also be very expensive as they're so uncommon.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

There is some mains gas in Bay of Plenty, my neighbour had it connected from the street to her house, at a cost, but it was purely for a gas fire to heat one room. I imagine full c/h would be very expensive. I think we have to learn to live without it.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

We were quoted approx $1000 per radiator (no matter the size to a point) installed plus the cost of the boiler or whatever system you wanted to feed them.......funnily the same price as UPVC double glazing. That was also $1000 per window regardless of size fitted but doesn't have the 25 year guarantee like in the UK.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Yip there's a few properties with proper UK style central heating in the North Island. We viewed a few in Wellington when considering buying and one in Tauranga. Pretty expensive to run though due to the high costs for gas. We rented a new house in Wellington with a roof mounted gas boiler which spat out hot air ducted to each room. Wife had it on constant and left all the internal doors open so the whole 290 sq m house would be the same temp......$1300 bill that month. She was duly informed of the errors in her decisions and it didn't happen again :p :eek:

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Not true. There is no mains gas in the South Island.

Reticulated (plumbed) natural gas is available on the North Island in the major centres. Owned and operated by First Gas.

Re: 'Fess up . Who has relit their fires this evening.
 

Eh?

http://resources.ccc.govt.nz/files/c...ionnetwork.pdf

A lot of the new subdivisions have reticulated gas, Faringdon in Rolleston and Pegasus in Woodend for example.