Keeping Houses Warm
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Category: General Chat
Forum Name: General Chat
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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17146
Printed Date: 01 October 2025 at 7:36pm
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Topic: Keeping Houses Warm
Posted By: kebakat
Subject: Keeping Houses Warm
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 5:00pm
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I'm trying to think of ways we can keep our house (and especially our bedroom as its the coldest room in the house) warm. And I'm looking for more ideas if anyone has any...
We were looking at a heat pump last year but it was just out of our budget range. So we will probably get that done in a couple of years most likely. In the mean time we have a gas heater (built in one) in the living room and one up the hallway. We don't use the hallway one as it doesn't have a flue (however that is spelt) so it stinks something fierce if you use it. So the living room one is on low pretty much all day now and it keeps the living area (lounge, dining and kitchen) warm but the rest of the house is freezing. We only have insul fluff crap in the ceiling which is probably half our problem as it basically does nothing to keep the heat in. So we are in the process of getting pink batts in the ceiling. We are buying it a bale at a time as we can't afford the cost of getting it all at once. Daniels room has a small oil heater which is on low all day which keeps his room at about 15-16 degrees which isn't too bad. He has lots of nice blankies which he loves so he's snuggly. I've replaced all the curtains to ones that have thermal backing. We also have black out shades behind the curtains (the roll down ones) which is good as its an extra layer to keep heat in the bedrooms. We have a dvs system in the ceiling but honestly notice no difference if its on or not. Last winter we did a test of keeping it on for a week and then turning it off for a week. It was exactly the same temp wise in our house Even with all this half the house is cold and I'm sick of it. I can't have the gas heater on full all day because its freaking expensive and will only add moisture to the air. What else can I do? (sorry thats really long lol) |
Replies:
Posted By: Kazzle
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 5:17pm
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we are going to get heaters that go on the wall, they are about $150, and only use 8c and hour.....or there abouts...and you can have then come on when you want and go off as well.
mum has one in her hallway, set to come on at 4am, so when she gets up at 5am, the hallway isnt toasty warm, but the chill has been taken off. we are going to get one for Rhiannons room and our room when we move house. (have you checked to make sure your windows seal properly, ours dont so i just put a rolled up towel in front of them) we also keep the doors closed to any room we dont use regularly and also the bathroom/toliet/laundry not sure what else to suggest sorry ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: MissAngel
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 5:32pm
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Night store heaters :) We have one of those in our hallway.
I use a combination of my gas heater and my fireplace. |
Posted By: mummy_becks
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 5:42pm
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Can you get another fin heater for your room??? Other than that I can't think of much else. Does any of the heat go out the sliding door?? Could you do something for that?? ------------- I was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived! |
Posted By: Bizzy
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 5:58pm
i would contact the dvs people and talk to them about it. my sister got one and noticed no difference either so rang them and they came out and found a problem...and now it works properly... ------------- http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"> 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 6:01pm
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I'm sure the seals on our window in our bedroom is screwed, we have our room + bathroom + toilet sealed off during the day. It's just a matter of getting DH to ask his uncle to come fix it.
We do have a small heater for our room. But I'm trying to think of other ways to keep the heat in the house, rather than heating just so it can escape which is ultimately more expensive. |
Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 6:34pm
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Yeah we are looking at getting one of those wall heaters for each of the bedrooms. They are by econoheat if you want to look them up. The other thing would be to look at underfloor insulation (depending on the type of house you have) we couldn't afford to do it all at once but DH spent the last 2 winters buying a $100 worth and doing bits here and there and now all the bedrooms and the bathroom and hallway are done and its made a huge difference to the back of the house.
I would also get DVS to come and have a look at the system and see what is wrong with it as it should make a difference. ------------- 
 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 6:38pm
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Well DH has been up in the ceiling this evening and it's really cold up there apparently so I don't think that it would make a difference if the dvs was looked at.
Those econoheat heaters are kinda expensive though - I think I saw them on good morning once. |
Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 6:41pm
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They are about $180 to buy and really cheap to run.
The DVS system should dry your house out which would make your gas heater work more efficiently though even if your roof space is cold. -------------
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Posted By: AnnC
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 6:56pm
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we have one of those eco heaters in Josh's room (the coldest of the house) and its useless.
DVS will not warm the house just dry it out so its quicker to warm. If you have no instulation in your ceiling, walls and under floor you going to loose most of your heat that way - espec if you have an old wooden villa type house. We went through better homes and got FREE.. under floor instulation top and bottom - instulation in the ceiling, draft stops on the external doors and they are yet to come and draft proof the windows and external doors but getting that done too free. Not sure who does it in Palmerston but if you don't qualify for it free you can get it discounted. ------------- Ann 
Also Mum to Josh (15) and Brooke (10) |
Posted By: AnnC
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 6:58pm
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I do know DVS can put a heater in your ceiling space which can be pushed thru to the rooms when its on - not too sure if it works or how good it is though ------------- Ann
Also Mum to Josh (15) and Brooke (10) |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 7:03pm
| Instead of spending $180 per heater (especially since when we can we will invest in a heat pump) I'd rather spend that money on trying to keep heat in the house. Like if I was going to get 3 heaters (cos we have 3 bedrooms) thats 6+ bales of pink batts - almost enough to finish off our ceiling. Plus we don't have that kind of money to spend heaters. |
Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 7:35pm
| I think there's a site, Better Homes, or the EECA (I think) that have subsidies available for homes older than 1970 and more subsidies available if you have certain income levels, a CSC and certain medical conditions affected by cold/damp conditions - they may be able to help you out with the cost of the insulation? Our house has insulation in the roof that isn't laid properly and that's it, and we have our freestanding gas heater on high at night with the whole house shut off except the lounge and bedroom, just to get it to a livable temperature. We run a dehumidifier 24/7 to deal with the moisture - we get about 10L per day. |
Posted By: peachy
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 7:35pm
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Our DVS definately makes our house warmer as its not damp and we don't get condensation on our windows. We have a closed in type fire and one log of wood is all we need to put on to keep our whole house warm all night and we live in an old style 1950's villa with cracks and draughts everywhere!
I would definately get them to have a look at your DVS, have you had the filter replaced recently? We replace ours every year, do you think that would make a difference?? Would it be worth putting in a fire place? Not sure of the cost, but I  our fire on cold winter nights!------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 7:55pm
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If you have wooden windows, buy some sealing foam from Bunnings and tape it around the windows (you can't see it). We did that and its made a huge difference to heat escaping and cold air coming in.
When you use your gas, put a bowl of water out. It traps the smell if your worried about it. Most places have subsidies, but a lot of low-income families don't qualify, you actually have to basically live on a benefit to qualify 
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Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 8:00pm
| Yes and no emz - we qualify for 25% subsidy just because our house is pre-1970s (built in 1936). Our income isn't taken into account unless we want more of a subsidy - with a CSC you can get up to 100% subsidy - or at least that's the way it is in Taranaki. |
Posted By: AnnC
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 9:25pm
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We got ours all for free cause Josh has a CSC and hes still dependant on us. you can get up to 40% subsidy if not. Does anyone have allergies in your family? that helps too. ------------- Ann
Also Mum to Josh (15) and Brooke (10) |
Posted By: AnnC
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 9:26pm
see above we are NOT on a benefit and getting a good wage just Josh has CSC so we qualified ------------- Ann
Also Mum to Josh (15) and Brooke (10) |
emz wrote:Posted By: .Mel
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 9:29pm
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What kind of roof do you have? Tin or Tiles? Is there building paper up there as well as the batts? Building paper can make a huge difference. I'd get the DVS looked at, we didn't notice any difference when we got one in our old house, and they came and did something with it and changed the filter and it made a huge difference. ------------- Mr Mellow (16) Miss Attitude (8) Destructa Kid (3) 
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Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 9:49pm
Must just be in our area then  Sorry didn't mean it to sound harsh, just that we've been looking into it, and to put ceiling insulation in our 1950's house on one income we get no help whatsoever so a bit peeved about that. Whereas if we were on a benefit or had 10 million kids we'd qualify (maybe thats how I can con the hubby into more babies?! lol). Great that you can get it via Josh though.
There are loans though as well aren't there - think we might have to bite the bullet and get one of those as insulation would help our icy little house a lot. And funny - just saw the tape I was talking about on homesick. |
Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 9:51pm
Oh Kate - that's not nationwide eh? Cos all the CHCH clean heat project stuff you have to meet heaps of criteria, one being that if you have a logburner they won't subsidise insulation but if you don't they'll subsidise both. Damn red tape, gimme cheap stuff to warm my aging bones! 
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Posted By: Maya
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 9:51pm
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Our last house was freeeeeezing, it had gappy wooden joinery and timber floors. At the start of our second winter there I refused to freeze thru another winter so went nuts on heating. I bought some special tape from Mitre 10 to tape up the gaps in the joinery, it's only a couple of $ per metre and it made a HUGE difference to keeping heat in. I also bought a dehumidifier (altho if you've got the DVS it does that anyway) and a portable gas heater, plus oil fins for the bedroom. ------------- Maya Grace (28/02/03)
 (02/01/06)
The Gremlins:Sienna Marie & Mercedes Kailah (14/10/06)
Lil miss:Chiara Louise Chloe (09/07/08)
Her ladyship:Rosalia Sophie Anais (18/06/12)
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Posted By: WRXnKids
Date Posted: 12 May 2008 at 10:48pm
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depends on your area as well in chch i heard of people who have got FREE heat pumps in chch and they arent exactly skint. I think my mate was getting a heat pump and underfloor insulation paid for in chch but her house is old wooden and high roofed ill have to ask her about it she is in linwood tho. -------------   
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Posted By: IVFGirl1111
Date Posted: 13 May 2008 at 8:58am
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You said your when your gas heater is on high it creates extra moisture - but that is what DVS should be getting rid of there for making your house easier to heat etc.
So I would DEF be ringing them. |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 13 May 2008 at 10:16am
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Our house is an 80s house so it's not THAT old really. All the joinery is aluminimum. The seals in our bedroom are screwed but making DH get off his ass and ring his uncle is such a challenge (and he bitches about it being cold more than I do!)
I'll get DH to have a look in the ceiling later (hes doing pink batts today) and see if there is building paper up there, it's a tin roof. And I'll look at getting the filter changed on the dvs. It's an old dvs - we didn't instal it, it was here when we bought the place. I don't even think that the company exists anymore lol |