How much are your utilities per week?

[mattandjax]

It isn't right, by what law, though? The I don't like this so take it away law? This isn't to say we shouldn't plan for better - it's about getting through until we can manage it. Being indignant every time renews the misery.

I can see a slight advantage here of being of an older generation - we've done this before. It was the norm in the UK in a majority of homes till well within my adulthood - well, except that we didn't even have the dehumidifiers. And we LIKED our homes. I think it helps not to get angry at the conditions, just build a routine to deal with them unthinkingly.

ahhh! yes i remember as a child going to wash in bathroom in the morning and finding the flannel was frozen, and there was ice on the INSIDE of the windows!

[phpalix]

Ok,
May I ask what is the lowest temperature in winter? also what is the highest in summer.

this doesn't sound bad at all.

If the data from the above link is true then its not "cold" winters, and summers are supposed to be pleasant, am I missing something?

[JandM]

That information, obviously, is correct. The problem for many people is how things feel, as there tends to be greater humidity than, e.g., in Europe, so things feel colder than with a similar temperature where they came from. Also, as you may have gathered from earlier posts on this thread, many NZ houses are not built with the central heating, insulation and double glazing that are the norm in other countries, so it is more difficult to feel warm and dry indoors in winter. There are other threads on this issue.

[phpalix]

That information, obviously, is correct. The problem for many people is how things feel, as there tends to be greater humidity than, e.g., in Europe, so things feel colder than with a similar temperature where they came from. Also, as you may have gathered from earlier posts on this thread, many NZ houses are not built with the central heating, insulation and double glazing that are the norm in other countries, so it is more difficult to feel warm and dry indoors in winter. There are other threads on this issue.

Thanks JandM,

I can imagine how humidity would make things worse, but I think that in all cases it should be MUCH better than the -20 we get here some times.

I reached that thread while searching for this specific thing, I get bad headaches when the weather changes, so got to investigate that.

[Super_BQ]

My relative's place (which is a fairly big house) has 5 people + 2 part time on weekends. They installed 2 new Mitsubishi heat pumps to heat a large open plan dining/kitchen/living. Their electricity bill was over $750 last month.

When you consider how expensive electricity is in NZ, the concept of cental heating just simply doesn't apply. It's simple physics and you can't assume lower monthly heating bills just by putting in a couple of heat pumps in a house because the fact is old houses were never designed to keep the heat contained.

[phpalix]

An process based on converting electricity to heat is power consuming, plus the power consumed by the fans. This should make central heating always better.

[James 1077]

My relative's place (which is a fairly big house) has 5 people + 2 part time on weekends. They installed 2 new Mitsubishi heat pumps to heat a large open plan dining/kitchen/living. Their electricity bill was over $750 last month.

When you consider how expensive electricity is in NZ, the concept of cental heating just simply doesn't apply. It's simple physics and you can't assume lower monthly heating bills just by putting in a couple of heat pumps in a house because the fact is old houses were never designed to keep the heat contained.

We had heard stories like that and were a little worried about how much our bills were going to be after having 4 heat pumps fitted. But they have come out at $250 a month - which is less than the previous month where the only heating was an oil filled radiator in the kids' room!