 Heating, Airconditioning and Ventilation
 Heating options are far greater now than for our parents: electrical, gas, new super-efficient open fireplaces, gas fires, in-concrete floor hot water or electrical heating units, heat pumps and air conditioning units and home ventilation systems.
And about time, too! New Zealand homes have been woefully under-heated and it leads to illness and poor health. Make your home warm, healthy and comfortable.
Gas lets you heat your home quickly and efficiently, and can save you money on your energy bills. It’s also much kinder on the environment than burning solid fuels such as coal or wood. Indeed, many councils are now moving to ban solid fuel burners altogether.
- Fully programmable gas central heating systems give complete control over the temperature throughout your home.
- Alternatively, a wide range of gas heaters are available in different styles for different decors.
- Modern ‘flame effect’ fires are freeing up designers to create beautiful and functional heating units unlike anything available before, and let’s face it, the great advantages of gas fires over solid fuel burners like a traditional wood fire is the elimination of the mess and not having to get more firewood in a screaming Southerly!
- Do you have sufficient heating units for your new home?
- Have they been correctly installed as per manufacturers’ specifications?
- Is the gas flued to reduce moisture build-up inside?
- Have you considered the trade off between price to purchase and the ongoing cost of running the units?
- You can get built-in gas and electrical heaters that will extend the use of your outdoor living areas into cooler months, and even make the evenings more enjoyable through summer.
Heat Pumps/Airconditioning has become a realistic component of many homes with the recent introduction of heat pumps. Heat pumps work the same way your fridge does. Warm air is removed from one side of the wall and transferred to the other using coils – outside to in, if heating, and inside to out, if cooling. Because there are no heating elements to heat, they can be very inexpensive to run.
- Consider the size of the room to be heated – larger rooms require greater power capacity on the heat pump.
- The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has launched a rating system called the Energy Star Mark that allows you to identify particularly efficient units.
- Buying a unit from and installing it yourself may not be the best option in the long run – installation to manufacturer’s specifications is often imperative for warranties to be valid. You’re also more likely to get the type of unit most suitable for your requirements.
- If doing a new build then consider a whole home ducting unit with the heat pump installed in the roof cavity and vents inbuilt into ceilings.
Home Ventilation Systems are increasingly seen as indispensable – as our homes become more airtight, the requirement for fresh air increases to both remove moisture and to filter pollutants from the air to help manage allergies and asthma. Home ventilation systems can also aid in the heating and cooling of air in
your home and are surprisingly inexpensive to run.
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In winter, air that is heated in your roof cavity by the sun is collected then pushed through filters into your home. It’s warmer, drier and cleaner than the air in your home.
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In summer, as the roof cavity cools (much faster than the inside of your house because the roof itself has no insulation) cool air is collected, filtered and pushed down into your home, cooling and replacing dirty and humid air
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Consider the system being installed – look for endorsements and get competitive quotes, but remember cheaper is definitely not necessarily better
The table below will help you compare the relative efficiencies of different heating units:
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