How warm to you keep your home?
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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=18137
Printed Date: 12 October 2025 at 5:19pm
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Topic: How warm to you keep your home?
Posted By: CuriousG
Subject: How warm to you keep your home?
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:22pm
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After watching Home Sick the past few weeks on TV, I was just wondering how warm you keep your home?
I was mortified watching it that families out there don't heat their homes, rather they pile on more clothes then huddle in the cold lounge under a blanket with 'steam' coming out of their mouths. It made me wonder how warm others keep their homes - our heat pump goes non stop from about 6pm till 8am every day keeping our house about the 20 degree mark. I just think its more important to have a warm home for my child's health - I am not surprised now, at why we have so many kids out there with Asthma! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: mummy_becks
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:26pm
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I don't believe half of what some of those people on HS say about having to be under blankets - I think that is all for show. I have my fire going all day. It is on low so the logs slowly burn but it is enough to keep the house warm. I have however just learnt my lesson about keeping the house too warm as the boys both have chest infections from being in a warm house and going out into the cold. ------------- I was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived! |
Posted By: CuriousG
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:29pm
Oh, I never thought about that. Must rug up child each time she goes outside  ------------- http://lilypie.com">
http://lilypie.com">
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mummy_becks wrote:Posted By: Maya
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:31pm
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I have no idea what temp our house is, we don't use heating except in the kids rooms at night but it's never been cold enough for steam to come out of our mouths! By the time I cook dinner and have the dryer going that seems to warm the place up a lot, and we have thermal curtains etc.
The coldest the gremlins room has ever got with the heater off according to the magic GroBag Egg is about 10 degrees. We keep it around 18 degrees with the heater overnight. -------------  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: Maya
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:31pm
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Oh, we do have a gas heater but haven't used it this year so far coz now that i have mobile gremlins I don't trust it and I haven't gotten round to buying a guard for it. ------------- 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: almostthere
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:32pm
We have thermal curtains too, and never have the house at a temp where we have steam 
We run our oil heater on a timer to go on at 6am til 9am and then again at 4pm til 10pm and that keeps it warm all day and night.. ------------- http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/2128f6"> 
http://www.fertilityfriend.com/home/2128f6 - chart |
Posted By: .Mel
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:33pm
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We used to huddle in our lounge under blankets to keep warm. This place is freezing cold.
Now with the heatpump, we have it on 18 over night and then went I get home I turn it up to 22 degrees. It's on 24/7. ------------- Mr Mellow (16) Miss Attitude (8) Destructa Kid (3) 
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Posted By: Neeks
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:34pm
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What's the heat pumps like for efficiency and are they cost effective?? -------------  
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Posted By: Snappy
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:35pm
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i agree with you mummybecks - that show tends to be a bit exaggerated!!!
i have no idea what temperature the house is, but we have two dehumydifers running 24/7, one convection heater and one large oil heater going overnight and during the day when im home. ------------- Mummy to two beauties... Formerly Kaiz. |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:40pm
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OK I do believe those people who have heaters/fires going and are still cold.
In my flatting days in one flat all of us had oil heaters going 24/7, we had a fire place going all the time as well. And the house was freaking freezing, I was always really layered up, when I was watching tv I had a blanket with me always. Some houses are just built like sh*t! We try and keep out house around the 16 degree mark. I hate going into houses and the house is stinking hot compared with outside. Like becks said, it leads to other problems. We have a built in gas heater which is on low most days during the day. And Daniel has an oil heater in his room on low 24/7. We are replacing the insulation in our ceiling slowly as we can afford it which will help keep heat in our house (its made a huge difference in the 2 rooms that have had it done already). And one day we would love a fire place. We were set on a heat pump but would rather natural heat over artifical (if that makes sense). |
Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:52pm
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Well as you may have read in my other post, this is a contenscious (sp) issue for me. We have the fire going all day and the lounge slowly heats up from 13 when we wake to 20 in the evening. At the moment it is taking most of the day to crank up (and helped by the afternoon sun). It is a huge room and even though we have moved down to one end we arent able to block off the other....frustrating. Tom's room is kept at a minimum of 15 (thats wiht a heater on high over night. Turn that heater down and the temp drops quickly). All this is leading to unsustainable power bills. We need to look at alternatives.
We freeze in our room and use 2 duvets (but my little mini incubator is kicking in and I wake really hot even though it is freezing).
Outside temp is about 0-3 overnight. |
Posted By: Rachael21
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 1:59pm
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I suppose its the joys of living in Chch Nikki.
We have the fire going on all day but it takes a while to really heat the room up. We have hung a sheet (so white trash) between our lounge and livving room to keep the heat in the lounge. I'm in the living room and I think I could almost see my breath now its that cold. Jack has a oil heater on at night and Caprece has a convection heater on at night and when she sleeps. I sleep with my electric blanket on and 2 duvets. So I'm not sure what temp our house is but not the warmest. One morning I took Jacks poo nappy off and there was steam coming off that
Our power bill was $350 this month too 
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Posted By: AngieBabe
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 2:00pm
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I beleive there are those who have to huddle under blankets as that happens in our house... thankfully not to the extent our breath is visiable though.
Our house is only about 24-25years old so theoretically has insulation but from what we can gather it's only the paper insulation kind and not bats etc... our ceileing follows the slope of the roof so we have the bare minimal roof-space which isn't enough to get up there and put some in ourselves. As for heating, well, no in built system in our house, just a wee two bar electric heater that boosts the temp a bit in our open paln lounge/dining/kitchen, hence the blankets when on the couch watching TV - we shut off the bedrooms, hallway etc so they're not heated at all (apart from electric blanket on the bed)... I do battle my DH a bit on this as I feel the cold and he doesn't so it's not so important to him and I'm often told to toughen up! I do realise when we finally have a baby that things will need a re-think; we are looking into heating and insulation options now, it's just cost is a biggie, so in the meantime, huddling under a blanket it is. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">  
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Posted By: aussiegirl
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 2:00pm
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Our house is old and some rooms get quite cold. We have a Rinnai gas heater, which looks like a fire, which goes on at 6.30am til round 9 to warm up the lounge, after which if I open the curtains the sun comes in. The sun really warms it up. Gas fire back on around 5 till 10ish. we also have an oil heater on in our room on low from 7 - 7. I love sunny winter days when I can rely on the sun to warm the house! ------------- Mum to Hayley **30.6.08
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Maya
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 2:04pm
We don't have pink batts in our place, we discovered when we had all the issues with teh roof recently that the only insulation here is insul-fluff in the ceiling  But for some reason, the house still seems to hold it's warmth.
Our last place was freeeeeezing! It was a 1930's wooden bungalow with gappy wooden joinery, I used to lie in bed at night and watch the blinds banging on the window coz the draft was so bad. And of course coz it had blinds, not curtains, the heat escaped like mad, and it had wooden floors and a huge glass conservatory, it was like living in a fridge! ------------- 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: kebakat
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 2:05pm
Have you guys considered getting some insulation pumped in? When my parents had their house built (15 yrs ago) rather than batts that had rock something pumped up there. The people who built our house pumped insul fluff up there which is rubbish but there is some other good products out there |
Posted By: AngieBabe
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 2:11pm
Yeah, we've been to a couple of home show, expo thingies getting ideas and are looking into options of getting foam stuff pumped in - just budget isn't allowing us to do it any time in the near future
We are actually thinking of putting our house forward for the next series of Homesick if they make one... but not having children just yet we prolly wouldn't get picked! ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: NeoshasMummy
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 2:22pm
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In our old house we ran the heat pump 24/7 through winter and used the air con most of the way hrough winter.
Now that we are in our new place its so well insulated that we have one of those bulit in fake fires (gas) and we run that from 5pm till about 8pm and a small heater in Neoshas room while shes having a bath and thats it. But when we lived in a freezing cold house we ran the heater all day and didnt care about the cost of power our brand new baby was much more important  ------------- https://secure.fertilityfriend.com/home/30c4ec/" rel="nofollow">  Mrs Te Kani ❤️ Neosha 26/5/2007 |
Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 5:50pm
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Our place is 1980's so it's not as cold as probably any of yours who have posted on here - thankfully! We run the heater on and off but usually just before breakfast and after supper. We get all day sun in our upstairs lounge and it holds it pretty well. The bedrooms are cooler, but I don't like the idea of heaters in children's bedrooms so we go without. We all have a woolen blanket and duvet on top at nights. ------------- |
Posted By: pepsi
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 6:03pm
| We don't use any form of heating most of the time, apart from in Alyssa's bedroom. The rest of the house is reasonably warm even in winter and if it's cold I have a preference to chuck on a blanket or watch tv in bed than crank up the heater - not cause I'm saving power but cause it's just not cold enough. DH feels the cold easier than me so often wants the heater on but since he's too lazy to get up and turn it on, even he doesn't bother. |
Posted By: cuppatea
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 6:43pm
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I set the heat pumps to come on at 6.30 so the house is warm by the time I get up and then I switch them off when I go to bed so over night the house gets freezing, at a guess I would say maybe 11-12 degrees. We have put an econo heater in Spencers room which I switch on when he goes to bed and that keeps his room at 15-16 degrees sometimes a little warmer depending on the outside temp.
I like to be toasty so the lounge is normally around 22-24 degrees and the back of the house is about 18. The biggest thing I miss about England, except family and friends, is a warm properly insulated double glazed central heated house. We have done a lot to this property to make it warmer but nothing will ever beat a 1900 brick house with central heating and double glazing which is what we had in the uk. ------------- 
 
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Posted By: Joelle
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 8:51pm
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Cuppatea - I know exactly where you're coming from. I miss the convenience of a central heated house and double glazing. The house we live in isn't too bad if its a nice sunny day.
I don't run any electric heaters unless I have too usually for overseas guests  I run the dehumidifiers in the bedroom. If I'm cold and its after 7.30pm I stick a jumper on before then I'll light a fire that does heat most of the house.
Since living over here I haven't had as many colds etc.. which is great and I put it down to the fact that I'm not constantly moving from really a hot environments to a cold one. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  
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Posted By: Jennz
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 9:24pm
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Ahhh yes- double glazed central heating is brilliant
New houses in NZ have to be built with double glazing now- we're slowly getting there! Our place here we have gas central heating so the place is warm all the time. In NZ in every house we had I always froze- no matter how many heaters we had going! When we come back FIL is installing heat pumps/aircon and we're going to get a DVS too. If we decide to build we'll have to have double glazing and we'll get fancy pants insulation as well so hopefully that will cover all our bases! After being over here and seeing how to do warm houses properly it seems insane that we live in a country that gets so cold (in places) over winter yet have these houses that hold no heat what so ever. ------------- Jen, Charlotte 7 & Kate 3 
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Posted By: AnnC
Date Posted: 11 June 2008 at 10:43pm
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I am very curious - IS heat pumps a killer on the power?
We have a log fire with wetback which heats the lounge, kitchen. diningroom and sunroom and heats the hall near the bedrooms a lil bit but does get cold around 11 deg during the night. We have a HRV so keeps the house dry so heat quicker and more. We have also had the house retro fitted but they didn't do the draft stop of windows and doors so hopefully that will heat the house more (or keep the heat in) we don't have any instalation in the walls though. So back to my orginal question - How econmical is a heat pump - how bad is your power bill s ince using one? ------------- Ann 
Also Mum to Josh (15) and Brooke (10) |
Posted By: MissCandice
Date Posted: 12 June 2008 at 8:56am
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When you get up here in the morning you can see the steam from your mouth. There is no heating in this house and its a huge 2 storey place with wooden fllor, so its DAM cold. I have a heater on in Kylahs room 24/7 and a gas heater in our room for night. We havent layed carpet in the lounge yet should be tomorrow so have to figure heating for in there. I try not to go downstairs because its so cold. Its not healthy. The landlord doesnt care and we dont know what else to do? ------------- ~ Mummy to a beautiful girl ~ |