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.