Healthy Heater Swap snapped up

The Warehouse’s Healthy Heater Swap campaign has been so successful more than 1000 extra time slots have been added – but some would-be swappers are upset that they missed out.

From June 13 to July 3, The Warehouse is running the heater swap, in which people can trade in their LPG gas heaters for an electric option at no charge.

Customers could book a time at one of 30 participating stores to trade in their gas heaters. A spokesperson said in the first week all the timeslots were snapped up.

‘‘We’ve released an additional 600 timeslots yesterday with a further 600 timeslots to be released on Monday.’’

But some regions, such as Taranaki and the West Coast, had been left out of the swap.

‘‘A pity it isn’t available on the West Coast which is one of New Zealand’s areas that really need this opportunity,’’ one person commented on social media.

‘‘Was going to heater swap but in Rots [Rotorua] all appointment slots had being filled within 39 mins,’’ another said. Another pointed out only 30 stores were participating, while there were 257 stores in The Warehouse Group, which also includes Noel Leeming and Torpedo7.

The Warehouse had determined where the swap programme was needed most, taking into account the store size and customer numbers during winter, the spokesperson said.

‘‘We are assessing the uptake and will take into account the learnings from this year as we look to our 2023 campaign.’’

Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy said The Warehouse had been clear only 30 stores would be involved through its advertising.

‘‘We would be concerned if The Warehouse’s advertising suggested the offer was more widely available, but I have not seen anything that suggests that,’’ he said.

The Warehouse Group sustainability lead David Benattar previously told Stuff the indoor LPG gas heaters had damaging respiratory effects because they emit a ‘‘significant amount’’ of carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, pollutants that could trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions. ‘‘The heaters also release moisture and can be expensive to run, making them unhealthy for Kiwis and the environment, and is the reason why experts are calling for the switch to electric heating.’’

There are about 96,570 unflued gas heaters being used in homes across Aotearoa. About 1800 11-fin electric heaters were made available for swapping. The Warehouse was also donating an additional 2000 heaters to charity.

All indoor unflued LPG gas heaters were being accepted as part of the swap and will then be recycled.