this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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Yes, good point. It didn't snow for about a month, due to the low humidity. I should have just pointed out the warmth of the houses only.
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.
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.
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...
Correct, US vs European (and NZ in our case) R values are different. Comparison: https://www.myonlinediary.com/index.php/Insulation/US-EuropeanRValueConvertionTables
Good to know, thanks!
But also it didn't make me feel any better because the normal Canadian insulation still seems to be twice as good as our good stuff...