Living with the ’sub’ in sub-tropical

When living in England there’s plenty to complain about: constant rain, short summers, dirty beaches, freezing winters, terrible service, and insane bureaucracy were a handful of my favourite gripes. However, there is one redeeming feature that often makes my father’s place of birth more comfortable to live in than New Zealand: well constructed homes.

A few English folk I met while in the U.K. who’d lived in New Zealand long enough to know the national psyche, found it funny that Kiwis seem to ignore the ‘sub’ part of our sub-tropical geography. They noticed how we expect it to be warm all year round and then get a shivery surprise when our poorly designed homes freeze over in the winter.

Alison Hossain, a University Lecturer at AUT, moved to New Zealand with her husband in July 2008 and says the poor housing here is a common concern shared by her and other expats.

“It’s probably the only real complaint anyone from Britain actually has about NZ – everything else is so wonderful, it’s the only real drawback. But to be honest, you soon get used to it,” says Alison.

“From my personal point of view, the main problem is the lack of insulation and double glazing, which means an enormous amount of heat in the home being lost,” she says.

England discovered the handy idea of double, sometimes triple-glazing windows decades ago, while in New Zealand the trend is just catching on.

Bruce Mason, owner of The Double Glazing Company, says more and more Kiwis are installing double glazed windows.

“In the past we would have put on another jersey and wasted time wiping the windows dry.  Today we’re waking up to the reality of the health and well-being benefits of having properly insulated homes,” says Bruce.

“Double glazing is now generally required in all new homes in order to meet the Government’s new energy efficiency requirements in buildings.  As of November last year all homes built in New Zealand now have to meet these requirements,” he says.

Like the three little pigs, the English choose to make their homes out of brick or stone rather than timber frames, with which 90 percent of New Zealand homes are built.

Our wooden houses, and their poor insulation, is why a survey conducted by the Council for Sustainable Development in 2008 found that of the 3,500 New Zealanders interviewed, 26 percent said their home had made someone living there sick and 59 percent said their house could be warmer and more comfortable.

In a 3News story the council’s boss, Peter Neilson, said poor insulation is one of the main problems.

“We’re probably paying half a billion dollars a year more in energy because we’re using it to heat the street rather than inside our homes,” said Peter.

Andrea, a mum of two teenage children, lives in an old 1930s wooden home in Nelson and says the house was cold in winter until she had insulation installed in the ceiling and under the floor.

“Since the insulation was put in, the heat pump is on less and the house is warmer in the mornings. I don’t need to have the heat pump on as long, or as high. My daughter’s bedroom is on the southwest corner of the house, and she’s sure it’s warmer than it was, says Andrea.”

Andrea’s experience touches on the other problem the English solved long before us; energy efficient heating.

Have to get up early on a cold winter’s morning? In England it’s no problem, just set the central heating for 5am and the whole house will be toasty by the time you put on your slippers.

In New Zealand we don’t have central heating, but the number of people installing heat pumps is increasing.

According to Smarter Homes, an educational organisation owned by the Department of Building and Housing, heat pumps are one of the most energy efficient forms of heating available.

They work by taking heat from the air outside and using it to warm the air inside, through a process that’s a bit like a refrigerator working in reverse. They can do this even when the temperature is cold outside.

Rachel Mote, an 81 year old retiree, believes installing a heat pump is the best thing she did to make her home more comfortable.

“The heat pump is wonderful. I just push a single button. In the mornings it doesn’t take very long to take the chill off. It is very efficient,” says Rachel.

Though the English are famous around the world for being bloody great whinges, the fact that our own Council of Sustainable Development survey found 410,000 New Zealand homes are unhealthy calls for us to take the complaints about our housing seriously.

Maybe it’s time we start acknowledging the ‘sub’ in our sub-tropical geography by building homes that would satisfy even the most grizzly Brit.