Heating methods pros and cons?

[liora]

Lots of posts recently about cold damp houses and how to survive them. Coming from warm Hawaii to Wellington this is a real concern to us. Could someone please go over the heating methods - mom use and cons and pros? For example- I understand heating pumps make the house warm but don't they also dry up the air too much? Don't they make noise when they go on and off according to the temperature? And - oil heaters? Are they not better in terms of not drying the air too much? But are they very expensive to run? As we have not heated a house in many many years we need some guidance in what to look for in our rentals. If people prefer other heating ways such as fire place or gas heater would love to heat about those as well!

Thank you!

[Familyofmonkeys]

A lot of New Zealand is very humid which causes mould spores and other allergens to thrive, so generally speaking you would actually want to dry your internal air here. Heating sources such as un-flued gas fires release water vapour as a by-product and can cause damp problems.

[Kanga]

Coming from somewhere you haven't had to use heating for several years and moving to the rental market in Wellington is a worry. You'll need to be picky and ensure your rental budget is adequate. The ideal rental would be north facing with all day sun, fully insulated and if it has a heatpump one of adequate size and number for the house. A rental that was previously owner occupied at the higher end of the market has more chance of this- the rentals that have been done for rental market typically are under insulated and have heatpumps not more effective than hairdryers. For me I prefer to look for a woodburner in such case because you can crank it and it'll keep warm for longer. A nice old kent pre-dating the clean air regs so you can make it 'keep in' can be good.

Look for evergreen trees that will block sunlight and smell for damp. Agents are notoriously criminal in their behaviour towards tenants- prepare to be treated as if you were sub-human but don't take it personally. If it's a dump don't be persuaded to sign.

[James 1077]

Heatpump is the best commonly found option - although not sure how common it is in rentals.

As a heating solution they are cheap to run, reasonably quiet and do the job of dehumidifying the air so that it doesn't feel damp. NZ's climate in many places is quite humid and the houses are often damp so you will probably want to run a dehumidifying (or two) if you don't have heat pumps otherwise you will be paying through the nose for heating!

[Hagabel]

De humidifier..and we went and purchased/borrowed oil heater and convection heater. Tend to use towel heaters only to dry towels or put them on just before bath for kids as that can rack up over a year or so.
Learnt to wear warmer pj's, slippers etc and will be getting electric blankets before next winter.
Also talking to landlord about possible heat pump.

[liora]

Very helpful, thank you.

[Dell]

The 'oil heaters' that are commonly used in NZ are the same type that I use in my house in Arizona. De Longhi brand is common. It's just an electric radiator-type heater that is oil-filled. They're clean and relatively inexpensive to use. Cheap to buy in the U.S. but expensive in NZ - about $250-$300. Though someone here told me about www.priceme.co.nz and I found retail shops selling them for much less...though I'm still in the U.S. so haven't purchased them in NZ yet.

[Hagabel]

The 'oil heaters' that are commonly used in NZ are the same type that I use in my house in Arizona. De Longhi brand is common. It's just an electric radiator-type heater that is oil-filled. They're clean and relatively inexpensive to use. Cheap to buy in the U.S. but expensive in NZ - about $250-$300. Though someone here told me about www.priceme.co.nz and I found retail shops selling them for much less...though I'm still in the U.S. so haven't purchased them in NZ yet.

We found 1 in Briscoes (on sale of course) for $159 and it has been very effective.

[Georgebulldog]

Liora if you want to borrow a big & smaller size oil filled rad then we have 2 that we aren't using anymore (well at the moment) We now have the econo panels in the bedrooms, they just screw onto the walls & plug in, don't cost a lot to run & heat a small bedroom nicely for the kids, our large bedroom doesn't get heated with 2 of them though but for a normal double size room they are great. http://www.econo-heat.co.nz/index.php I'm sure you could talk a landlord into installing them into bedrooms if you were to fix the walls when you left

[MoneyMan68]

is heating a big problem in NZ then? :S

i mean compared to the uk, for example.