Double Glazing & Central Heating

[acisman]

Hi Everyone

We were watching a TV programme last night in which it was stated "most NZ homes were generally heated to 16 degrees, 2 degrees below a level that was deemed necessary for good health" It got us thinking that with so many Brits coming over here and being used to double glazing and central heating, why, in such a "green" country is DG & CH still non-existent.

OK the winters (hopefully) are much shorter here, but is spot heating the only answer. I have searched the internet for DG & CH and while CH is possible, although not common, DG is impossible to find. I traced one firm (Pilkington Glass) who emailed back to say "give us a ring and we will tell you about our products.

I reckon anyone from the UK who is in the sealed windows game could make a very good living out here. With so much heat being lost through the windows, where is the energy efficiency I thought NZ was promoting.

Hope we do not sound like a winging POMMs and perhaps we need to adapt to the NZ way in this matter. However how do you South Island Brits survive when up here in the Waikato we are finding the nights and morning very cold ?

Pam & Dave

[GeorgeM]

We have double glazing throughout our house including the 16(!) exterior doors. The house is approx 5 years old and was built that way - when we had some alterations done the builder didn't seem to have any problems matching the new windows (including one which is huge) to the existing.

I think that a lot of people in NZ see central heating as a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I don't know whether we're hardening up but even recently we've been going round in sweatshirt and shorts all day (up until bedtime). We would have definitely needed central heating to do this in November in the UK but felt quite comfortable here. Even towards the end of last month we were having to open windows and doors during the day to get the temperature down (in the heatless house). BUT... then you get a southerly blast (max temp in Chch is 7C today OMG) and out comes the temp heating.

Our experience is that temperatures are significantly warmer overall, and winters shorter and less intense in most places (although I am not denying that it still does get bitingly cold at times). In this environment heatpumps seem to be a far better alternative as they can be reversed to work as AC during the hotter times - probably a more important consideration here than in the UK.

As most houses in the UK built in the last 40 or so years have had central heating people have become accustomed to having every nook and cranny of the house at a temperature where they can roam around in their underwear. The NZ attitude is far more one of heating the areas where you're spending most of the time and enduring the shock for the short periods you're elsewhere. We would definitely have had areas of our house below 16C last night, but not bits that we were in.

[Wannaway]

Agree with the comments that it is generally warmer here and the cold snaps don't tend to be quite as cold as the UK or as long.

We have a couple of oil filled heaters, one upstairs and one down, and just have these come on for an hour or two to take the chill off. Seems to do the job, although have yet to see impact on energy bills :eek

The biggest problem we have is with condensation, its really bad. We have taken to blasting our towels in the tumble dryer because the air is so damp that, if you have a shower one day, the towel you use is unlikely to be dry the next day. We all have colds in our household at the moment and I am sure that is more to do with the general dampness in the air than it being cooler.

[AliJax]

Indeed, my most recent bout of Pnumonia, was as result of the cold damp house we think. Which has spurned us to house hunt for a property with better heating solutions. The new house (move in July 16th) has a wood burning fire in the living room & two additional Gas wall mounted heaters.

When we had a second viewing the two gas heaters provided enough heat for the whole house and we went back to our shivering shack, turning on the oil filled radiators.

WORD OF WARNING, dont kick the oil filled radiator in the dark without your slippers on. I did then promptly fell ontop of the said article whilst a little tipsy, only to find my toe had a nice little cut through the nail.

I dont understand why NZ doesnt promote more efficient methods of heating & insulation, one of the first things I'm going to do is to insulate the loft space and try to get some under floor heating in the bathrooms.

Also the use of wide use of 'bulbs' as opposed to compact fluorescent lamps.

[GeorgeM]

You're right about insulation - I think that this is probably as much of the problem as no central heating. NZ is certainly many decades behind the UK in this regard, but again I think that the culprit is the better weather - it took longer down here for it to be seen as a problem than up there.

The UK wasn't always a centrally heated, well insulated mecca - the house I grew up in (built 1954) wouldn't have been out of place in NZ today - no central heating, no insulation. Many times in the winter there would be ice on the inside of my bedroom window. We just thought that this was the way things were when it got cold, and I suspect that many NZers still do.

But times are definitely changing - they certainly advertise CosyToes insulation enough to suggest that there's more than a passing interest in this sort of thing here now.

[ruthyroo]

Another impression that I have is that kiwis do not like to spend 'unneccessary' money - and if they can put on (another) fleecy rather than turn on a radiator, they will always opt for that. To this mentality, DG and CH probably seem like a bit of a frivolity and a waste of money. But I also agree that CH has made wimps of us in the UK - my MIL came out here to visit recently and she got a real presbyterian kick out of having to shut doors to keep the heat in, put on an extra jumper, and huddle round the wood burner for warmth - she said it took her right back in time to her parents (cold) house!

Most kiwi's agree that their houses are cold - but they don't seem very motiviated to do anything about it. I'm adjusting too - buying some extra fleecy's for the winter!

[jubjub]

I have been here nearly a week, and our rental has this heat exchange system and at one point the temp got up to 23 degrees! Although I got up yesterday morning and it was at 0 in the roof.

I am only really cold when we first get into bed and when you nip to the bathroom in the middle of the night, apart from that wrapping up, using the heat out of the roof space and a couple of hours of an oil filled radiator, I am not doing too bad!

Reminds me of staying with my gran.....

[veronica]

hi jubjub, you wanna try it in Chch, its colder down here, very often when people talk about these things they forget there is a difference of climate throughout NZ, I'd hate to be in Invercargill.....or the mountain areas where the houses have been built to the same spec as houses in Auckland.

[jo b]

I came across this firm recently.

Upvc double glazing in NZ.

http://www.epcsheerframe.co.nz/7893/html/prepage.html

Jo

[Kenny]

Although wall insulation is now part of the building regs these days, the older buildings (10 + years - ha -Older) tend not to have any.
We have been in 5 houses in NZ now and not one of them had any insulation in the walls. It's like living in the garden shed.
We are lucky enough to have ducted air heating in the house now which is great.
Oil filled electric raidiators tend to be very costly to run to keep rooms warm.
Wood Burners only heat the room they are in or in order to heat the whole house means that the room the burner in is so hot, it is like sitting in a sauna.
However. In the summer you are glad that the house is so cool.

You can't have it all ways. Swings and Roundabouts I suppose.

:? :?