Here's how to heat your home this winter if you live in a cold rental

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Napier single mother-of-two Hannah had to get used to spending at least $140 a week on power through winter when she was living in a rented, uninsulated house.

'All the windows were sash windows with gaps and cracks so blankets, bubble wrap had to be used to reduce the breeze in the house. We had heaters running in every room but used to eat dinner on my bed and basically all lie in my bedroom as it was the only way to get warm.'

She was working but not earning a huge wage, and the bills were a struggle.

The family moved out of the house, for which they were paying $350 a week, year ago. 'It was warmer to sit outside with the brazier than to be inside most nights.'

A properly ventilated house should be easier to heat and have less mould.

* Damp: The battleground between landlords and tenants

Another woman, Alyssa, said her Hutt Valley house was no better.

It had mould problems from the beginning.

'Black spots on the blinds in lounge and bedroom, mould on the ceiling of bathroom and laundry. But that was summer. Once winter came around it became apparent that there was zero insulation.'

Tenants do not have the same range of heating options as owner-occupiers, in some cases.

She tried to heat the house with a flued gas heater in the lounge and the biggest oil-fin heater they could find for the bedroom.

'In the morning both windows and walls were wet with condensation. Mould grew everywhere. Walls, ceiling, everywhere. I coated the bedroom in Exit Mould. We had a Damp Rid containers in every corner of the room that would need to be emptied, full of water, after a few days.

'We'd wipe the room down with towels and leave the windows open when we went to work, despite the security risk. We spoke to the landlord and were given an ancient dehumidifier to run. He even had someone replace the non-functioning extractor fan in bathroom. Yet the mould still continued.'

She said they left windows partly open some nights to try to ventilate the house, with heaters running, but nothing helped.

Landlords will have to insulate by mid-next year.

Both women say it was harder to heat their homes because they were tenants.

'A fireplace and insulation would have made a massive difference,' Hannah said. 'Along with sealing the broken windows. As tenants we just had to deal with it and work around what we had… I did the best I could but if it was my property, I would have taken so many steps to make it better.'

If you are in a cold house this winter, and don't own it, there are some ways you can make it more comfortable.

If you have fireplaces you aren't using, seal the chimneys.

Check for draughts: It's easiest to heat a house if there are not too many opportunities for the warmth to leak away. Put draught-stoppers along the bottom of doors, check for windows that aren't closing properly. If you have any fireplaces you do not or cannot use, seal them.

Heaters: Generally, all electric heaters are about as energy-efficient to run as each other. They turn all the power they use into heat. (This is different to a heat pump, which creates more warmth than it uses in power.) But if you are using a heater that is not the right size for your space - such as a small fan heater in a big living area - it will work hard, use a lot of power and provide you with little warmth to show for it. You won't save money by buying a heater that is too small.

Manufacturers claim that infrared heaters use less power by comparison and can be a good way to get a cheaper heat in a draughty house. Consumer NZ warns that they only work in line-of-sight.

DIY double-glaze: You can reduce the amount of heat lost through windows by buying a DIY glazing film, or using bubble wrap to cover the glass.

Ventilate: It is much harder to heat a damp house. If there's someone home during the day, open the windows to air the house out. Dry the washing outside or in a vented dryer. If your bathroom or kitchen extractor fans aren't working properly, ask your landlord to fix them.

Stay away from unflued gas heaters: They might feel like they pump out a lot of heat but they also give off a lot of moisture and potentially dangerous gases.

Use a dehumidifier: A dehumidifier can be an economical way to take the chill off a room as well as a drying it out. A Consumer NZ test found that a dehumidifier raised a typical bedroom's temperature by 3.6C over two hours, and used 11C of electricity.

Ensure your landlord is meeting their obligations: Landlords don't have to provide heating in every room, but they do have to provide a form of heating in any living room. All rental properties have to be insulated by mid next year, provided the structure of the house makes it possible. If there are problems with the house that are your landlord's responsibility but that are making it harder to heat, you can issue a 14-day notice to remedy. This gives them 14 days to get the work done.