Agree with you. We have a long, 1969/70 house we have added onto and it can be difficult to heat. We have insulated (it already was when we bought it, so we have renewed and increased) as we have renovated. Added 2 heatpumps, one down each end, and took out the open fire, replaced with a log burner and just replaced with a newer more efficient one. I don't go with the "leave heatpump on 24/7". I work at home hubby is a sparky. I have a weather station attached to my computer and the sensors are on the roof above my head. Makes interesting reading during the day, and at night. We get the four seasons in Christchurch and the nights are bitter, but not as bad as inland or further south. Hubby is a sparky, and he explained that when the heatpump is on, its drawing power, so why have it on 24/7 if you are heating an empty house or keeping rooms warm you are not in. He has also installed a DVs up in the roof to dry things out and I would say everything is working pretty good now. We only have the heatpump in the kitchen/lounge/living on for 3 hours just before he gets up until I get up. The sun shining into all the living areas and all bar one bedroom (that one is double glazed on the south side) warms the house the rest of the day. I either light the log burner at 5pm or put the heat pump on till bedtime. Usually no need to put the one on down the end, unless its really cold, and then for only an hour or two. I believe that dressing for winter, not outdoor clothes, inside is important, but you shouldn't have to strip off to be comfortable in your home in Winter. I notice 18-20 degrees is really comfortable. I do believe that good windows (we replaced them all 21 years ago and they are mostly laminate with only a couple being double glazed. Laminate has a layer of laminate between glass, a little like double glazing but not as good. We have large 60/70s style windows. I have made all the curtains, they are thermal, to the floor and have an extra layer of thermal backing attached. So they literally block out the light, and keep the warmth in, or the cool. There are many factors in heating a house, its not just about having the right log burner or heater, its about as much insulation as you can, and good well fitting, generous curtains.
tweake,
Jun 4, 6:51am
i disagree on that. the house is your "winter clothes". the whole fundamental point of a house is to get you out of the elements and be comfortable. having to dress up to keep warm means the house is not doing its job. but kiwis have been forced to dress up for generations because we have never built homes suitable to our climate .
brightlights60,
Jun 4, 7:06am
No, I was of the generation, if you are cold, you put a jumper on. You shouldn't have to put a merino under garment and a Kathmandu jacket on inside to be warm. Just dress for the season. Why on earth spend a load of money heating your house to a subtropical temperature when you don't have to? We are never cold. I am looking at the monitor in my office and its 21C in side, 7C outside. A bit warm but okay. In the morning it may be only 18, but perfectly bearable. Would rather stick another layer on than turn on a heatpump for one person. Don't get me wrong, I would not work in a freezing cold environment, but I don't believe in having the house hot or where we sleep hot either.
tweake,
Jun 4, 7:25am
but if the house is built to a better standard, it cost so little to run heating full time you simply don't bother to turn it off. benefits are its better for you and its better for the house. plus you don't have to get dressed up. you wear summer clothes all year round, you use summer bedding all year round.
for eg there was a very high performing house that was out of power for a week due to snow storms. i do not know how cold but i'm guess below zero easy enough. the house dropped 10 degrees in a week with no heating running what so ever (only had heat pumps). far to say their normal heating bill is sweet stuff all. a bit of an extreme example but point is if you build a decent house heating it constantly is so cheap you simply have perfect comfort all the time.
tygertung,
Jun 4, 11:04am
Actually humans are designed to be able to easily withstand a variety of temperatures without any ill effects, and not have to be at the same homogeneous temperature all the time.
I don't think it is a good idea to have your house so hot during the winter that you have to wear t-shirt and shorts. Otherwise when you go outside to bike down to the shops or whatever there is a sudden extreme change in temperature and the body won't be conditioned to it.
Our "normal heating bill is sweet stuff all" as well. We just heat rooms we are using and the house doesn't get moldy at all because we aire it out.
kateley,
Jun 4, 4:21pm
but do you have ice forming inside like the original poster?
annie17111,
Jun 4, 5:37pm
I get home from work at 5am and it's nice coming home to a warm house. My kids hardly ever get sick and when we go outside we put warmer clothes on and it's fine. I work in a 9 degree environment and wear appropriate clothing but I don't think breathing cold air at night when sleeping does my kids any good as my youngest will start coughing. Lastest power bill was $259 and that's using the heat pump overnight and the dryer for 2 loads of washing a day.
nzrose7,
Jun 4, 11:10pm
Not everyone can afford the horrendous power bills associated with having heating on 24/7
brightlights60,
Jun 5, 12:20am
Yup. agree, we have never, ever had overnight heating on in any house, 4 houses, 40 years of marriage/living together in a house. Never felt the need to heat the house, not the people.
brightlights60,
Jun 5, 12:24am
I must be missing something. If the house was built to better standards, why would you have heating on 24/7? Why does anyone need heat on 24/7. You do realise your appliances that heat, use electricity when they are turned on. It makes absolutely no sense to have things turned on 24/7. Even your applicance on stand by use power. It makes more sense to turn anything you are not using off.
tweake,
Jun 5, 1:14am
yes your missing something. just because heat is on, does not mean its doing any heating or using any power.
when you "leave the heat on" you simply let it do its thing. it turns on when it needs to, but because its a high performance home it rarely needs to actually heat. it simply saves you mucking around trying to run the heating system when it can do it itself. it also means it can run in the most efficient way it can. its actually cheaper to have it on all the time than it is to reheat a cold house.
btw this is not new, its pretty much standard overseas. its just kiwi houses are so bad we can't afford to keep a house warm. yet we make excuses not to build decent homes.
if your worried about standby power usage then your a poor person or your finances have gone horribly wrong. its so little its non-existent to most people.
tweake,
Jun 5, 1:15am
everyone would be able to afford to if houses where built properly.
brightlights60,
Jun 5, 4:53am
Really? Nothing wrong with our budgeting skills and 45 years as a sparky installing, servicing and advising on heating gives hubby a fair amount of knowlege I would think. Hey, if you are fine with letting your electrics run your heating system without any input from you because its capable of doing so, thats great. Us, well, we are pretty budget wise (and very proud of it thanks) when it comes to power usage and bills. Whatever rocks you boat I guess. I am fully aware that newer houses can be airtight, cheap to run and cost efficient, but we are not speaking of these. Ordinary NZ houses, as you say, in some decades are not built for our climate and can be difficult to heat. Its working out the best way to heat, insulate and irradicate cold from your own home that is the problem. As with Poster one. Unfortunately all houses, built in all decades in NZ have not been created equal, therefore one size does not fit all. And yes, the moment you switch something on, even on standby, its using power. Sorry, but its true. Sorry you missed that point. It all adds up unfortunately, especially with the high cost us kiwis pay for our electricity.
tweake,
Jun 5, 6:31am
mmmmm. no.
first of all if your quibbling over $1-2 of standby power, your doing something wrong. if your worried about it work 10 min more at work.
new houses are not airtight, cheap to run or efficient. which is why OP has an issue. new houses in CHCH have the same insulation as a lot of houses in winterless northland. our standards are pathetically low on NEW homes. which is why people heat a little as possible and wear outdoor clothes inside.
your highlighting kiwis bad culture with homes. being super frugal on power, making excuses to not heat homes properly. on top of that no ones making good houses that don't need heating and are frugal on power. its a ridiculous situation.
tygertung,
Jun 5, 8:10am
It is pointless heating parts of the house which one isn't using.
tweake,
Jun 5, 7:45pm
for a low performance house, that can be true. it looses heat so fast there is no point. however for anything half decent, the unused rooms can get heated via the heat coming through from the other used rooms. eg i leave the door open on the spare room, its gets heated via the other bedrooms and lounge. same with hallway and bathroom. its not great heating but its not cold either.
the rooms that typically have mold issues are the ones that do not get heated. there is advantages to heating the whole house. the more mass you heat the more it works for you. keep in mind its the house that heats you. everything in the house radiates heat to you. heating is simply heating the air to heat the house, which in turn heats you.
again, build a decent house then you can heat every room in the house for the cost of heating one room.
tygertung,
Jun 5, 10:23pm
We don't get mould in our 1982 house, even in unheated rooms. The only rooms which get damp are the ones which people are residing in, and we aire them out.
annie17111,
Jun 5, 11:04pm
we don't have unused parts of our house, it all gets used.
kateley,
Jun 6, 1:42am
the question was about ice forming inside the master bedroom - I don't think it is a stretch to think it is being used
tygertung,
Jun 7, 6:00pm
Yes, you might use all of your house, but you might not use it all at the same time, so just put heating on in the rooms you are using at the time.
We have a 8kW Fujitsu heat pump downstairs and it heats the whole living area up in about 10 minutes. (Maybe 66m2).
tweake,
Jun 7, 9:00pm
well, no it doesn't.
this is a fundamental mistake most of us make (myself included). in 10 min all its done is heat the air. "take the chill off". it has not heated the room as that takes hours. to properly heat the room means heating up everything in it, from furniture to the timber in the walls. anything you touch should be warm. with a properly heated room, the room heats you. ie heat radiates off everything to heat you. but it takes hours for everything in the room to heat up. mass takes time to heat up.
it can take 3-6 hours to properly heat a room up. with a properly heated room, the bed is warm to get into. the seats/couch is warm to sit on.
kiwis are well taught to heat themselves, like stand in front of the heater, but fail to heat the house.
heating the room your in is simply about heating you, rather than heating the room. if kiwi's built decent homes you could heat the entire house for the same cost as the living room and heat the house properly, so the house warms you instead of the heater warming you.
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