The Greens are looking to introduce changes to the rental market to “give everyone in New Zealand a healthy home to live in”.

  • Dave@lemmy.nzM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    I wonder if there are companies in NZ that build houses to a standard that people coming from overseas expect?

    I know heatpump powered central heating is becoming more common, but it seems only for those who know to ask for it. I’d be interested in knowing what other things make warmer houses, so I know to look out for them.

    • Rangelus@lemmy.nzOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      When we built, we went with a smaller local contractor. We came from a cold, damp, house, so specified we wanted it WARM. Something that helped is we have polystyrene backed cladding. This isn’t included in the R-value calcs for Code, but definitely helps. We also went with thermally broken frames, which wasn’t worth the money I don’t think.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzM
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        So I went searching to see what might be different overseas. I picked Canada, and found a page saying Canadian’s use about 60% of their total energy use heating their home. So I thought maybe they are just more willing to crank the heater up

        But then I came across this page. It lists typical R-value for insulation. The numbers are in the 30-60 range… that’s got to be a difference in how they measure, right? I don’t think you can buy insulation more than an R value of about 4 in NZ…