Energy saving tips for home heating
Top tips for reducing your heating costs.
Whatever your budget, there are ways to make your home heating more efficient and reduce your energy costs.
Insulate
One of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to make your home warmer is to insulate.
While it's easier to install insulation when you are building or renovating, there are ways to improve the insulation in your existing home. For example, thermal drapes will prevent heat escaping from windows. It's also worth considering double-glazing or other glazing options to help your home retain heat.
See insulation and glazing for more.
Use the sun
The sun's energy can be harnessed to provide free home heating. How well your home catches the sun's warmth will depend on factors such as placement and orientation of windows, insulation, and use of materials such as concrete which can store heat in the day and release it at night.
In a well-designed home, solar energy should be able to provide sufficient warmth day and night, throughout most or all of the year, in most locations.
See passive heating for more.
Choose the right heater for your needs
When you're choosing a heater or heating option, it's worth considering whether you want to heat a single person, a single room or the whole house. There's no point paying to heat the whole house if you'll only be using one room.
Some types of heating warm the person they're faced towards (these are known as radiant heaters) while others provide gentle background warmth through the whole room or house (these are known as convection heaters).
Use a heater with a thermostat
A thermostat turns your heater or heating system on and off as the room temperature rises and falls. This can save energy by ensuring you don't run the heater/heating system more than you need to.
Other tips
If you use a heater, woodburner or other source of heat:
- put it near a source of thermal mass such as an internal concrete wall - that way the heat will be absorbed and re-radiated at night
- don’t put the heater near a window - a lot of the heat will escape through the glass panes
- don’t put the heater where it will create uncomfortable draughts (heat flows from warm areas to cool ones)
- keep heaters clean - they’ll be more efficient
- turn off the heater if possible, if you’re leaving the room for more than a few minutes.
More information
From Smarter Homes
From ConsumerBuild
From consumer.org.nz
- Heating options
- Choosing a heater
- Oil-filled heaters
- Unflued gas heaters
- Heat pumps
- Woodburners
- Woodburner emissions
- Heat pumps
- Forced ventilation systems
Note: You may need to be a subscriber to access some of this content.
From other sites
The Energywise website has a page about home heating, and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s website has information about appliances for heating and cooling. Also see www.energystar.govt.nz for information about energy efficient appliances.
The Ministry for the Environment’s Warm Homes Project web page has information about efficient home heating and health effects from cold homes.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research has a web page providing an overview of New Zealand's climate.
You can get local weather information from the Met Service website.
