When looking for a property....
 

So I keep reading about how cold the houses are in NZ, however some can we quite warm if you get the right equipment by the looks of things.
In england I'd just look for double glazing, and good loft insulation, and of course Central heating. But is sounds like you have to look for different things in NZ. Heat pumps? what are they never heard of them...

So when looking for a property what things should look for in order to keep warm - and I might need a little education on some of this equipment I am unfamiliar with:D

looking at a budget of $700 per week...not sure if that will make any difference.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Assuming you mean to rent??... If so I'd invest in some good heaters of your own and a dehumidifier that you can take wherever you go. Then avoid southern slopes or a house that is in a 'dip', stay away from plaster or anything that 'smells damp'. Then assume that you're going to have a huge power bill during the colder months. All the extras you mention are what you install into a house you buy and you'll be lucky to get them in a rental.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Just to confuse the issue further, a lot of homes, particularly further North are designed to deal with hot weather! You will probably be renting so you can stock up on Electric heaters pretty cheaply.

If I was looking at a house positive things in terms of temperature might be (not in this order):

• No signs of mold or damp (look for evidence of leaks)
• double-glazing (rare in Auckland, more common down South I believe)
• insulation
• heat pump (which works as air con too - here in Auckland we have it on in the summer and winter.)
• woodburner (great in a power cut which you get here more often than in SE England)
• Check the hot water tank is big enough for your needs
• Large windows and glass doors - good in terms of warming rooms if they let the sunshine in, not so good when not double glazed because they get cold. Nice to have lots of light coming in though. Can lead to overheated rooms in summer.

I agree that a dehumidifier is a good investment, especially if you are renting. This and the electric heaters will probably come in useful wherever you live.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Usually Kiwis will recommend you invest in an extra sweater and some concrete pills. :rofl:

The right equipment for bedtime might also includes some sexy thermal underwear, polarfleece onesie, a beanie, electric blanket and flannelette sheets.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

agree with Bo Jangles, get your thermals before you come. men as well. My hubby used to be au naturel in the UK but even he wears fleecy jammies in bed now and we have invested in heated blanket. Heat pumps are well and good but once turned off thats it no residue heat.
Double glazing isn't as UK and does not act the same, unless you get a new build where it might be.
Don't book a rental for more than 6mths, if it has problems you will want to get out as soon as possible as the landlord is unlikely to make things better as there is always someone else to take it on.

Just a note, kiwi friend of ours has been in bed all day with heated blanket on to keep warm as they have no fire wood for the wood burner so it's not just us poms that suffer from the cold

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Hi, just coming in on this thread, we have just rented a bungalow that doesn't have double glazing or a heat pump, but it does have 2 gas wall heaters and we are told, wall and ceiling insulation, underlay under the carpet and wait for it.....under floor heating in the very small ensuite
So my question is what heaters should we buy, electric, oil filled, 5 fins, 10 Fins etc etc. any particular makes best?
Thanks in advanced :D

Re: When looking for a property....
 

your pulling my leg...that sounds like bloody camping!

Re: When looking for a property....
 

why is the housing so poor in NZ? I don't just don't understand - surely developers have said we're going to raise standards?

Re: When looking for a property....
 

we have a oil heater and a electric heater if you need to borrow some

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Ooh may take you up on that until we find out exactly what we need by living in it. See you Wednesday, looking forward to it :D:D

Re: When looking for a property....
 

they are now getting things a bit better but you will be lucky to find a new build that is for rent.
most places are wooden construction to stand up to the earthquakes. some areas, like ours, do no have main gas so can't have central heating.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

ok will put them in the boot, unless you don't want them yet, along with a pick axe and bow saw to return to Mary

Re: When looking for a property....
 

I wear a beanie to bed or sleep with my head under the duvet otherwise you wake up with a mega headache from the cold.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Camping, yes it can often feel that way. I forgot to mention that other preferred Kiwi mod con; the hot-water bottle.

I have heard many folks extolling the virtues of an electric throw; it sounds to me like they all pretty much live on the sofa wrapped in it. Yeughh! :(

Re: When looking for a property....
 

I wore a knitted beany hat to bed when we lived in Christchurch. Yes it was like bloody camping. How was this an improvement on life in England I asked myself ?

Re: When looking for a property....
 

I remember our first rental when we arrived. I have never been so cold in my entire life.

The house had a leak and just a couple of wall heaters but being as the walls were made of some flimsy stuff the heat just went straight out.

The first few weeks without our furniture we were also on a blow up mattress on the floor - sleeping fully clothed with a dressing gown on and inside a sleeping bag.

We are much warmer now - double glazed and insulated with heatpumps but still long for central heating.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Pay no notice - they just joshing you. I know lots of kiwis and they live in warm toasty houses. Rentals will always be worse, as they are in the UK. I remember arriving in London and freezing my butt off because the landlord felt two hours of central heating a night was fine. Hot water was turned on twice a day but not long enough for two baths (no showers of course). When you got up in the morning there were leaves underneath the closed skylight.

I have a feather duvet which does the job nicely and quite frequently I get too hot. If I felt really cold I might put on a fin heater, but it is rare. My bedroom has floor to ceiling windows so it does get a bit nippy. Fins are probably similar to the central heating most Brits will be used to and you can move them around. Safe to leave on too when go out, but don't hang clothes over them. I think they are pretty economical. Those panels stuck on the wall are pretty poor - I wouldn't bother with them.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

errr just thinking the same thing...so why are we moving I ask myself?

Re: When looking for a property....
 

phew was getting a bit worried:fingerscrossed:

Re: When looking for a property....
 

:lol:

Now who's taking the piss?

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Absolutely!

We used to have a couple of those fin radiator things. Heated up the room okayish & could put them on a bit of a timer but in no way could they ever be considered similar to central heating.

I know plenty of Kiwis & Brits who don't live in toasty, warm houses :p

Re: When looking for a property....
 

That was the point I was trying to make - according to some here, you are better off renting a dive in England than living in frosty NZ. The reason I like fin heaters is that I can put them away for most of the year.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Oh, it's all for the adventure................apparently. (Is there an upper age limit on adventure ? Say, 15 ?)

There's very few that will admit what a long hard very expensive (thankless) slog emigration really is. Some people cruise it though.

Plenty of people have better adventures or life changing experiences and never leave Britain.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

I think you need to look at the amount of post on this thread that state the houses ARE cold over here to the one's that say they are not.

then judge for yourself

Re: When looking for a property....
 

I'm not claiming NZ houses are not cold in winter. Hey, it's not like in England where all the houses are high quality construction, made of brick, fully double glazed and set up with effective central heating. If you buy a house here there's nothing to stop you kitting out your house accordingly.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

you can say that again jmh :D

Re: When looking for a property....
 

We installed hydronic underfloor heating and wall radiators. Our boiler is gas fired. Total cost came to approx 15k (new build). We have had the unit on once for a couple of days this winter primarily to test it out. It's now turned off as we haven't felt cold. Our house faces north and is well insulated.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Our heat pump stopped working yesturday. Been right through the manual and can't work it out. It will blow out cold air but not hot, Maybe all the rain we had flooded it?
I miss my heat pump, so does the dog, she keeps looking at it sadly.
Kaz:(

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Kaz, have you done a google search on the make and problem?

also we off to 180 tomorrow 11am if you're not working?

Re: When looking for a property....
 

People can get a bit *cough* hysterical about freezing NZ houses. A little bit a common sense will go along way.

If you get a old wooden villia such as this....

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/Ki...t-auckland.jpg

Expect it to colder than this

http://www.homestyle.co.nz/files/ima...David-Reid.jpg

As others have mentioned, check for insulation, don't take the landlords/agents word, get hubby to look in the loft.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

I love those old houses, but you're right. You'd need to do a bit of work to get it up to modern day standards. Good solid wood construction though.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Mother nature is not favouring nz at the moment - things are turning to shite in terms of slips, floods, droughts and earthquakes, freezing cold winters (never was like that in my childhood in nz) so the old wooden dungers don't cope. Get a house that is quite new and you should be right (just check its not leaky first though if moving to Auckland)

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Did you get fired from the NZ tourist board ?

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Iv'e gone that, given up trying to sort it myself and got a man to come fix it.
I am working but got lunch break 12.30 I'll txt u when leaving to see if you are still there.
Kaz:)

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Forgot to say, I an agent tells you the house doesn't get that cold which is why there is no heating, run for the hills cause they are so lying.
Kaz

Re: When looking for a property....
 

He's been hired by the government to cut immigration.:lol:

Re: When looking for a property....
 

lol - no just got the info about the slips and floods from the paper from a few days ago

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/weather/ne...ectid=10891037

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/new...ace-flood-risk.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Im guessing Im a fair bit older then you Shocked Kiwi ( Im in my 40's ).

I remember the Abbortsford landslide in Dunedin very clearly. I was about 12 and the images of all those houses tumbling down that hill are still with me.

I've never been keen on wanting to live in a house on a hill since then ( or at the bottom of one for that matter )

Sadly these events have always been with us.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

We moved into a 90s brick and tile in Pommie-moa, the agent laughed when I asked about heating and said we didn't need it because it never got really cold. If there was a god, he'd have stuck her down with lightening for looking me in the face and telling that lie!

In the winter, it got so cold - you could lie in bed in the morning and see your breath on the air. I used to sleep in fleece pjs and a Wolfskin fleece I used to wear horse riding in the snow back in UK.

We suffered more illness in 18 months there, than 20 years collectively. My kids were constantly ill with chest infections and colds, the whole family got bronchitis - and every week, I used to pick a room and just go hard with regard to cleaning the mould from the window frames,blinds and back of furniture. i'd rotate weekly, so that no room ever went longer than 9 weeks without a good scrub. BUT, it was a miserable way to spend days off, and I've probably caused who knows what damage to my respiratory system with the bleach and chemical fumes I inhaled.

Once our lease was up, we moved into an older wooden house which was insulated in the roof (but you can see daylight through the gaps in the floor - so lots of carpets and rugs) but it has a wet back, HRV and solar hot water.

We still run our dehumidifiers 24/7, but the wetback and solar save us over $100 a month in the summer, and $250 a month in the winter.

Even with the floor issues, it's dry and warmer than the old house.

I made super heavy, triple lined curtains which are too long (no gaps at the floor) and we've put econo heaters up in the bedrooms and bathrooms (11c an hour to run, and they have timers - $88 each from warehouse).

The children haven't been ill once since moving here, I haven't had to clean mould off anything - and we're all a lot more comfortable and happier as a consequence.

We've just purchased the house from the L/L, so flat broke and no money to do anything, however next summer - we'll insulate under the floors and also look at a wool insulation which can be piped into the walls.

If we were ever renting again, we'd stay away from brick and tile unless it was built after 2010 (but even then check that it has insulation)

We wouldn't consider anything without a wood burner, unless it was a new house with double glazing and insulation.

The extra you would pay in rent, you more than make up for in health and comfort. (IMO)

You do have to take into account the cost of wood, but you can buy cheaper in the summer and store it yourself. You'll pay a lot more for wood in the winter, especially wood that has been cut a year before, because it burns hotter and lasts longer.

We've gotten pretty good with the fire - we're rural and some of the local farmers have pointed us in the right direction with choice of woods. We can get the thing really hot, then turn it down so it burns slowly all night. Gives us a toasty house in the morning and free hot water.

If you can find a way to heat your home efficiently so that you're comfortable and you keep mould and illness at bay, it makes an enormous difference to your happiness and well being.

I never realised how awful life is, when your home becomes a place of dread and every family member hates being there.We actually used to go outside and find things to do because it was warmer - I think this may be the reason the kiwis like outdoors so much!

Apologies for ramble, I wouldn't want anyone else to make the same mistakes we did. It's an expensive way to learn the lesson.

Re: When looking for a property....
 

Mod hat off.


Then you need to re-read and understand what happened there . I know that road and that lady was known to me.
You also need to spend time enlarging your reading matter to include world wide weather affairs and the impact this has always had on people , structures, environments.

So. Get your facts right or , basically, shut up.