Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

Actually health problems related to cold are only likely below 16 °C.

Temperatures people find comfortable depend on their conditioning; a person brought up in Africa will probably be able to tolerate higher temperatures than someone from Invercargill and vice versa with the cold.

My Brit OH used to wear shorts summer and winter here for years. He is older now and over the years he has become conditioned to the Auckland climate and feels the cold.

Personally I hate air conditioning. I sit in it all day at work and much prefer natural temperatures.

I think there is a difference between wanting things to be the same as the UK or elsewhere, and things to be as good as the UK (or elsewhere).

There is nothing wrong in trying to improve things. As customers, and workers aiming for improvement is a good thing, even if the standards are set overseas!

As good for whom though, that's likely what many Kiwi's would think I suspect.

If you have not been brought up with central heating you learn to dress accordingly.

There are horses for courses and free will for all. Neither opinion is better or worse, just different.

If you want your central heating go for it, install it.

However that does not neccessarily make your choice best for me as I find air conditioning an unhealthy.

But I don't try to tell you my way is an improvement on yours.

:)

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

:p
......the comedy on this thread just gets better and better..............:rofl:

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

:D So when my bean bag gets damp because it's on the floor in the unheated part of our centrally heated rental, it should just put on another jumper should it?

My Landlord installed heatpumps downstairs for us this week....(Upstairs has gas warm air central heating stuff)trouble is I know it will mean the bills will be even more horrendous if I use the heat pumps because of the lack of double glazing and insulation....so nice to have them but...

The installer told me my standard dehumidifers would dehumidify much better than the setting on heat pump for this.

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

16 degrees means very little as you can tell.....

It all depends as you say on humidity, ventilation and temperature which depending upon house construction and your background "health" will have a different effect on infants, kids, adults and the old/infirm.

You could keep a damp hole at 16 degrees background and it still would be a damp hell hole with cold spots on the walls producing black mould.

Of course we call all adopt the great Kiwi "invention" of airing the house in the day - might have worked for your grandma (or you in the 1920s when you ere a girl Aunty) but life is not that simple any more and those nasty insurance companies (typical Pomm invention!) won't play ball if we leave our windows open whilst we are out at work (bailing this god-foresaken third world country out by bringing in overseas curency..... only joking, its not totally god-foresaken....yet!)

Then you could heat it way up and it wouldn't cure penetrating damp or those hard to reach spots or poor ventilation - not only the extract ventilation but also the "make up" air where it comes in and what it comes in like will have considerable effects - hence DVS, etc, etc.

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

Wasting energy by not adopting good building standards accepted the world over is not a matter of opinion or conditioning, it's just burying the collective head in the sand and saying 'not invented here....harden the f--k up!'

If no-one had ever taken the trouble to accept that others might have improved things, we'd all be still living in caves and clubbing each other!

There are plenty of things the world (and the UK) could learn from New Zealand, and many of those reasons is why I am here....but building and heating standards are not one of them so let's stop claiming they are 'suitable for the climate and people' because the world has moved on and improved...it's time to do so here.

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

You mean similar to what happens on here if you dare to make a comment that might
possibly be taken as anti kiwi.

Careful you'll have the lynch mob calling round .

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

:blink: Try being a kiwi and posting comments in here.

They can create a bigger wave than a Tsuanami.

My comments weren't a response to anything taken as anti Kiwi colandras.

They were meant to be constructive which is more than I can say for some of the high and mighty responses.

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

pot kettle black......

time to step down from the high horse where you never ever criticise another's way as being inferior..........just their opinions.......not much difference IMHO m'lady.......:thumbdown:

......cause you are doing it all the time, just like the rest of us.......

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

Polish your crystal ball and have another look Sir :)

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

So Bellasmum - what about my beanbag? Should it put on another jumper? No because relative dampness is an issue, heating or not, as Lardyl said.

Heat pumps may work brilliantly (don't know yet) but I wouldn't want one in UK because I'd be worried someone would sabotage the outside box of tricks.

Also the instructions say don't place outside box where leaves could gather...guess where the installers have put it...yes under a deciduous tree in the front garden lol.

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

Thanks for all the info
Not only do i now know about heat pumps and where to install them, i now know Brits have a better sence of humour then the kiwi, building standards are poor and many homes are damp and cold.
Cant wait to get get over there just wish my house in uk would sell.
Thanks and keep up the good banter.
Tony

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

Actually buy one of those houses that you can take away from site, and shiver away in it whilst you build something decent on the section (but make sure you have a wood burner with wetback fitted) and get our your very large stihl saw to chop up the old house. Then use the old house for firewood and if its really cold put the stihl to one side and get a very small axe and small saw so you can excersise whilst dealing with the fuel thereby warming up "the southern way"...

Simple way to deal with crap NZ properties and get a "decent" new house into the bargain. But probably best to construct the new property mainly out of combustible materials so you can repeat the above in 10 to 20 years time.

Good luck.......

only joking BTW, please don't take this as immigration advice.....I'm not licensed.....

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

Heat exchangers are bad for you? Now on this I'll need convincing ;).

Also we seem to be forgetting just what a poor country NZ is, our income per capita is lower than Estonia or Slovenia FFS. We service massive overseas borrowing and aside from selling houses to each other and a bit of cheese to foreigners have no other real export industry.

The fact is we do amazingly well regarding the standard of living given the low incomes here :thumbup:.

Now if you want to have a moan about why New Zealand income levels have failed to keep pace with the rest of the world (except for Zimbabwe of course) or how the current government that is supposed to be aimed towards economic progress yesterday failed to remove trade tariffs then feel free. I’ll not tolerate listening to unfair criticism of my good countries housing however :thumbdown:.

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

As someone said

"Ah New Zealand - the only Anglo-Saxon Third World country"

And it wasn't me............

/ducks anyway/

Anyway the UK is soon set to joint us along with the USA, most of Europe, etc........

Re: Heating a house in NZ
 

I'm having my first heatpump experience now as our rental had one fitted just after we moved in (with the gov. grant, which is clearly a joke because apparently to get the heatpump grant he had to get the house insulated and it seems this only entails putting what looks like tinfoil under the house and in the roof space) and I'm NOT impressed. It's a lovely north facing house so I don't need to use it much but when I do I've found the only way for it to efficiently heat the main room is to run it for several hours, otherwise it feels draughty and the room has cold patches. Also when you turn it off the heat just disappears. None of it radiates down to the bedrooms. By comparison we built a house in the sticks with a single wood burner and a heat transfer system and insulated it as properly as possible here and were always toasty. I think a wood burner does give a pleasanter heat and also, if you're hard up you can scavenge for the fuel. We're overpaying our electric bill to build up a surplus for winter because I bet it's going to cost a bomb and it was with some amusement that I noted in the instructions that in really cold weather the heat pump may not work and I'll need alternative heating.
Genius: a heating system that only works when you don't *really* need it :lol: