WINTER WARMERS
From heat pumps to insulation and the toastiest gas fires, here’s how to make sure your home is nice and cosy when the temperature drops
A comprehensive guide to heating your home – from heat pumps to insulation and beyond
Before you start blasting heaters, be aware warming your home for winter starts with two important steps – insulation and ventilation.
Insulation
“A house with good ceiling and underfloor insulation can reduce heat loss by up to 50 percent,” says Liz Ross, eco design advisor for Auckland City Council.
Heat travels from warm areas to cold areas so if your home is warm but the outside temperature is cooler, the heat will escape. Insulation provides a barrier of resistance against heat transfer, which is expressed as an ‘R-value’. The higher the R-value, the more effective your insulation will be. Proper insulation ensures that heat isn’t leaving your home faster than you can generate it. Builderscrack estimates insulation costs to range from $70-$160 for every 5sqm.
Other top insulators
Rugs As well as providing relief for bare feet, rugs stop heat loss through the floor.
Draught stoppers Cool draughts can sneak in through gaps between doors and floors but draught stoppers will help. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) also suggests checking hinges and latches are tight, adding weather stripping to seal gaps around doors and windows, and blocking chimneys of unused fireplaces with a rubbish bag filled with shredded newspaper.
Curtains Poorly fitted curtains can create a ‘reverse chimney’ effect and bring cold air in, but properly fitted curtains can be as good as double glazing. Curtains should sit snug on the floor and cover the entire window, to stop the cold air that forms near windows escaping into the room.
Make sure the fabric is thick enough too.
Ventilation
This is essential for maintaining air quality and removing excess moisture. If a house is airtight, it will be easier to heat, but ventilation is needed to stop air from becoming stale and damp.
If your house needs help, a ventilation system (prices start at around $2000) or a dehumidifier (around $150) will effectively and automatically do this. Remember to dry your clothes outside as much as you can and open up windows and doors (even in winter) to let the stale air out and invite fresh air in.
Air purifiers
If you’re worried about the quality of air in your home and you want something to heat simultaneously, Dyson’s new Purifier Hot+Cool ($999) and Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde will do both jobs. Designed to capture ultra-fine dust and allergens, as well as destroying VOCs including formaldehyde – a colourless gas pollutant released by furniture and wood products – they’ll provide a far better quality of air by sensing formaldehyde with a new solid-state sensor to remove 99.95 percent of particles. Considering we breathe in up to 9000 litres of air each day, that can only be a good thing.
Heat pumps
For large rooms that are heated regularly, look at fixed heating options such as heat pumps. With lower running costs and more heat output than portable electric heaters, they’re usually worth the upfront cost.
Jose George, Canstar New Zealand general manager, says, “getting professional advice on choosing the size of your heat pump is critical because an undersized unit will need to work a lot harder, using more electricity, and may still struggle to heat or cool.”
Some heat pumps come with built-in air filtration systems designed to improve air quality. Look out for a blue butterfly logo, which is a sign that the heat pump has been approved by the Asthma Foundation NZ Sensitive Choice Program.
The World Health Organisation recommends living areas should be heated to a minimum of 18°C (20°C for children and the elderly) and bedrooms be heated to 16°C at night. “For every degree higher you set your heat pump, you use 10 percent more electricity,” says Liz Ross. She recommends setting your heat pump between 18-21°C. There are three main heat pump systems to consider for your home:
Single room Consisting of a single outdoor unit (the compressor) connected to an indoor unit, this is a good option for one open plan space.
Multi-split If you’re looking to heat more than one room in your house, consider a multi-split system. This consists of multiple indoor units connected to one larger outdoor compressor and allows you to heat and cool a number of rooms and individually.
Ducted Designed to maintain one perfect temperature throughout the whole house, ducted heat pump systems are an efficient alternative to gas central heating. It’s more discreet than a wall-mounted heat pump, but it also comes with a higher price tag.
A ducted heat pump system consists of one large compressor, which sends hot or cold air to each room via floor or ceiling ducts in the house.
Liz adds a note of caution, however, “Unless you pay for zone control features, you may waste energy heating parts of the house you are not using.”