Cold, Damp, Mouldy, & Mildew, and thats the good bit ;-)
Hey thanks for the good thoughts. I have been here now for 11 years, so I'm not a newbie, I lived in Smoky old Sheffield England in the early 60's, and Canada in between so have a good overall knowledge of these places.
People think Canada is cold, and yes it can be - OUTSIDE - but in truth I have never been so cold as I was initially here. The coldest I have ever experienced is -58c in Alberta one year (Get -45c every year for a few days) and I was never cold, as the homes are geared for it and temperature controlled, unlike here where a central heating system is not the rule, especially in rentals.
In rentals the key to comfort and health is to find a home with heat or, as previously mentioned, adapt a heating system you can take with you. The average air replacement in a NZ home is 50% or more per hour, this means you have to heat all the air in a house every 2hrs. A huge task.
When going to rent, check out the heat, look for mould/mildew, (When you see mould or mildew even in the bathroom its too late as the pathogens they generate are already airborne), if possible ask the existing tenants about their winter experiences (Don’t be shy), I have even tracked down ex tenants that moved to ask them.
Check with the landlord about heat, insulation and winterising (Seals, heat, etc). If you can, avoid anything that not heated somehow, trouble is that won't leave you much. Maybe this web site could host a selection of decent, qualified rentals?
What we are bringing to the party here is a semi-Canadian thermal envelope, as well as a system that will heat a home for most of the winter at no cost. It is hard to retrofit but very do-able. We are about to build a home in Queenstown (Worst case solar scenario in NZ) where we have engineered the house to hold +18c inside, all winter. It uses a solar earth storage system under the house, which accumulates all the summer attic heat and allows you to tap into this huge heat reservoir as required during the winter. NZ has so much solar energy; it’s a crying shame it’s not being tapped more often.
The house that is to go into Queenstown is the Oxford, you can see it at our Energy Efficient Homes website if you want: www.eehnz.co.nz
Navigate to the houses section (Over 150 of them) and select Classic homes.
Hope this helps, like I said before, if you can live comfortably here, is a great place to live.
Cheers
Originally Posted by Avalon
Never thought of that. Mind you - right now its hard to think of anything! Brain has turned to mush. Again. 
