Energy efficient scheme is cheap
Christchurch couple John and Nanette Elderton are thrilled with how warm their 1908 Kauri-built St Albans house is after Red Cross and CEA had the house insulated.
Elderly Christchurch residents and those with serious health conditions are benefiting from an energy efficient repair project.
Nanette and John Elderton live in one of 70 households that have been made warmer with the help of Community Energy Action Charitable Trust (CEA) and the Red Cross-funded Repair Well project.
The trust installed free wall insulation and other free energy efficiency measures during the repairs of 70 quake-damaged homes.
The retired Eldertons have lived in their 105 year-old St Albans villa for 41 years. They spent a year out of their house and moved back in July last year after repairs were completed and ceiling, floor and wall insulation installed. They are now enjoying a drier, warmer home.
When their first electricity bill came in August last year, it was ‘‘not too horrific’’, said Nanette Elderton. ‘‘It has been colder this year and so far, our electricity has been under $200.’’
Earthquake repairs required their home to be lifted off its foundations and completely gutted, which then allowed the CEA to install underfloor and wall insulation. The house was lifted three metres off the ground and nine-metre screw piles were put in underneath for the repairs. ‘‘It’s almost a new house.’’ Other energy efficiency measures carried out under the ‘‘Repair Well’’ project included energy efficient curtain tracks, measures to enable ceiling insulation to be fitted closer to older style downlights and underfloor insulation for homes being raised for foundation repairs, like the Eldertons’.
John Elderton said the insulation in the walls had made a ‘‘big difference’’. They had a couple of heat pumps in their villa and in ‘‘really cold’’ weather the systems would cut out. Since the insulation was installed, the heat pumps did not cut-out to the same extent.
The windows had also been double-glazed through the project.
A short time after moving in to their home, in September last year, Nanette suffered a broken pelvis in a car accident. ‘‘The house is definitely more comfortable to live in as far as our health is concerned.’’ Her arthritis had also improved ‘‘a little bit’’, since they moved back into the insulated property.
CEA chief executive Caroline Shone said quake repairs were an excellent time to make homes warmer than before.
‘‘Wall insulation is an obvious improvement to do when linings or cladding is replaced but is not usually done during repairs. It is the most energy-efficient improvement people can make during housing repairs and is well worth the investment.’’
Other homeowners had wall insulation installed through the trust although they had to pay for it themselves. Another 210 vulnerable households referred by social agencies were in various stages of the project. It had been a morning of stuff-ups and I was looking forward to a professional coffee as opposed to the stove-top cup of Joe I make at home.
She’s a long road finding the perfect cafe´, mate, and I was driving along when I spotted an enticing frontage to an eatery I hadn’t been in before. Deftly I slung the car into a park, fed $4 into the ticket machine, which failed to register my fiscal contribution. Furious I tried to find the cellphone to make the call to the authority so I wouldn’t get pinged, only to discover I’d left it at home. Hurriedly I scrawled a note explaining that the machine was recalcitrant, placed it under a windscreen wiper and went into the cafe´.
The queue was bearable so I took my place in it and had already mentally chosen my table by the window with enough natural light to read the paper when a group entered the cafe´ and sat down at