Technology has made it possible for mankind to achieve many things, but Mother Nature is still in control when it comes to the weather and the seasons.

While many of us may have been sweltering in heat and humidity during the height of summer, it won’t seem like too long before those muggy mornings will be replaced with the icy bite of winter, marked by fierce frosts, frozen puddles and the vapour of exhaled breath.

When that happens, you’re going to want to make sure that your dwelling is as easy to heat as possible because there’s little worse than a winter spent unsuccessfully trying to stay warm in your own home. Climbing out of a warm bed into the chill of a mid-winter morning is a miserable experience, matched only by a frigid evening spent huddled in front of the TV trying to keep the cold at bay.

In fact, throughout winter, it’s possible for the bulk of your energy bill - more then 50% - to be absorbed by heating your water and heating your home. Therefore, if you want to save a few pennies on heating and keep your home as warm as possible over the colder months, it’s essential to have a heating system that’s both effective and well-suited to your home.

There are many considerations when it comes to selecting a heating system for your home. These include the size of your home and its age, the areas that you want to heat, the amount of work to install each system and the cost of running them. The health of those living in the home should also be taken into account and this can also be affected by the age of the residents.

Before you decide on the type of heating you wish to install on your home, you need to think about the layout of your home and consider how much heat you need to produce to warm each room. One way of doing this is to look at the volume of each room, which can give you a rating of the heater you should install in that room.

Do this by measuring the size of the room in metres (height x width x length) and then divide that figure by 20 to give you an approximate kilowatt (kW) rating of the heater required. As an example, look at a living area that has a wall height of 2.7m, is 5m long and 4m wide. By multiplying those three figures (2.4x5x4) we come up with a room volume of 54m3. By dividing that figure by 20, we come up with a figure of 2.7, indicating that a 2.7kW heater is about what you will need to heat that room effectively
There are other considerations, such as the purpose of the room, because it makes little sense to devote a large amount of energy to heating a bathroom, for example, when it’s typically not used for long periods, unlike the living areas of a home in which family members spend large periods of time.

In that regard, it can be a good idea to split your home into ‘zones’ that can be heated individually or at a different rate. For example, you can keep your living room and lounge or family room at one temperature while maintaining your bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen and laundry at a lower temperature.
The recommended temperature for a living area is, generally, around 18C although babies, young children or the elderly can boost that recommended temperature to about 21C.

However, before you can go about heating your home, you have to decide on the form of heating you want to use - and there’s plenty of options available; everything from electric heaters to log burners and gas central heating. Before making your decision, you also need to take into account the types of heat that are produced by different heaters; conduction, convection or radiation.

Conduction is the transfer of heat directly through an object, such as a hot water bottle or when you hold a hot cup of liquid while convection is the feeling you get when warm air is blown past you, such as that produced by a fan heater. Radiation is the emission of heat from an object such as an oil heater or radiator and, because it can keep you comfortably warm even when the air temperature is quite cool, is possibly one of the most efficient ways of achieving your heating needs.

Underfloor Heating
Radiation is the reason why heating the floor of a home is the most effective way of warming both the home and its occupants - because it constantly radiates a low level of heat to give you a comfortable environment to live in.

Unfortunately retro-fitting underfloor heating is unusual and can be costly as it’s best installed when you’re building a home (or completing major renovations) because it usually involves heating elements included in the concrete floor slab. However, one option is to fit a heating system beneath tiles on top of an existing floor, and this can be achieved relatively easily, even in existing homes. It’s a fairly popular addition in kitchens, bathrooms and entrance ways and can be controlled by a timer and thermostat. These allow the system to switch on at a certain time each day and maintain itself at a pre-set temperature before switching off when the day starts to warm up. Wandering into a bathroom on a mid-winter’s morning to find warm tiles beneath your feet is a wonderful luxury and once you’ve experienced it, we can almost guarantee you’ll consider under-tile heating if you renovate your bathroom.

You can buy an under-tile heating system for as little as $300 that would suit most bathrooms, but you’ll also have to pay to get an electrician to wire it in, which will add to the cost. However, the installation of the system itself really isn’t that difficult if you follow the instructions closely and, if you’re undertaking a major bathroom renovation, it doesn’t add too much more to the overall cost of the job.

Central Heating
If under-floor heating is not an option for your home, then another alternative is a central heating system that uses a main heating unit, which can be installed in the attic or under the floor, or even outside the home. From there, a series of ducts direct heat to various areas of your home.

Central heating systems can be diesel fuelled, but are more often powered by gas, which can (in many centres - especially new areas) be directly fed from the main gas line in your street. Otherwise it requires the installation of a gas (or diesel) tank that needs to be refilled by a contractor as you use up the contents.

Central heating can be set up to heat different zones of your home to different temperatures with both a timer and a thermostat and can also be used to provide hot water, but they are expensive to install. Depending on your home, you could be faced with a bill of between $7,000 and $12,000 before you’re finished.

Heat Pumps
If it’s highly efficient heating you’re looking for, you really can’t go past a heat-pump as possibly the most economical form of heating on the market.
A heat pump basically consists of two units - an exterior ‘evaporator’ unit and an interior ‘compressor’ unit. In basic terms, the evaporator circulates refrigerant through a series of pipes, effectively extracting energy from the air around it. The refrigerant is then compressed, which creates heat to be released into the home. That refrigerant is then circulated back to the exterior unit where it’s cooled before repeating the process.

What makes a heat pump additionally attractive is the fact it can be used to cool a home in summer, purely by reversing the flow of the refrigerant. Some units can even be used to provide dehumidification and air-filtering as well.
What makes heat pumps so efficient is the fact they produce more heat than the electricity it takes to run them. In fact, in certain circumstances, a heat pump can produce heat equal to three times as much energy as it takes to run the system, giving it a 300% energy efficiency rate.

However, they can be expensive depending on the system you wish to install - whether it be to heat one main room of your home or ducted throughout the house to heat the entire residence. Costs are dropping through and it’s not unusual to see a system of around 3.5kW, capable of heating a good-sized living area, available for around $2,000, including installation costs.

Gas Heating
Gas can be used in two forms to produce heat - either in a flued system or as part of a portable gas heater, although both systems are quite different.

Flued gas is usually ‘fitted’ into your home and generally uses an external gas cylinder to provide the fuel for the system, much like a gas-powered central heating system.
Unlike a portable gas heater though, flued gas expels carbon dioxide gas and condensation into the atmosphere outside your home, while portable gas heaters release them into your home. In fact, a portable gas heater can produce up to a litre of water per hour into your home when they’re being used, so it’s essential that you’re careful which rooms you place these in. The law prevents the use of portable gas heaters in bedrooms/

Portable gas heaters are relatively cheap to buy and to run, but they can create a damp environment that can have adverse health effects on its occupants, especially if they suffer from asthma or similar ailments, although a number of these heaters now come with a sensor that shuts the heater off if the level of oxygen in a room falls below a pre-set level.

Flued gas, though, is quite different and can provide clean heat almost instantly without the condensation side-effects produced by portable gas heaters.
Some flued gas heaters options offer pretty easy installation when placed on the outside wall of a home. With a small ‘mushroom’ cap, they can be vented outside the home, drawing air in through one part of the vent and expelling the fumes through the centre of the cap.

Gas is also quite environmentally friendly compared to other fossil fuels because it burns very cleanly and is quite cheap compared to electrical power.
To provide ‘atmosphere’, a number of manufacturers also offer gas heaters that give the appearance of open fires, which can really add to the appearance of a room, especially on a dreary winter’s day.

Costs can vary dramatically for gas heaters but be aware that you may also get hit with some pretty serious installation costs if you’re going for a ducted system.
The nature of gas also allows it to be used to provide a supply to power your cook top as well as heat your water, often in an ‘on-demand’ capacity where the water is heated only as you need it, rather than storing hot water or having to heat large amounts of it as can happen with an electrically-heated hot water cylinder.
Continuous flow gas water heaters take cold water from your mains and give you an endless supply of piping hot water within seconds, on demand. They heat this water, when you want, to the temperature you want, using digital control pads that can even 'speak' to tell you when your bath is ready.

Run the spa bath, dishwasher, shower and washing machine one after the other without running out of hot water. The preset water temperature always remains constant, at the temperature you choose.

These continuous hot water systems also free up space inside homes allowing designers a large amount of flexibility. However, because job retro-fitting a full gas system can be a major job, installation costs can price it out of reach of many homeowners. If you’re building a new home, adding to an existing home or undertaking major renovations, then it might pay to look at costs versus benefits to see if a full gas system is worthwhile.

Electric Heaters

Electricity provides a clean, relatively cheap form of heating that has a number of advantages over some of the other possible sources of power. One of the most obvious of those is versatility; it’s easy to move a portable electric heater from one room to another by just unplugging it and moving it to its new location. Unlike other sources of heating, there are no pipes or flues needed to use electric heaters, and they don’t emit fumes or noxious gases.

Electric heaters are also remarkably efficient, converting 100% of the power they use into heat, making running costs pretty cheap and they’re generally pretty cheap to buy. Also, because most of them generally require little or no installation, that cost can be removed from the equation when it comes to considering the type of heating you need for your home.

Electric heaters can come in many forms from small portable fan heaters and more permanently fixed wall-mounted panel heaters right through to ‘flame effect’ heaters that can give the impression of an open fire. While the latter of these can look quite fairly permanent, the reality is that they can also be quite easily shifted from one room to another.

Generally, electric heaters can be controlled by a thermostat and, because they’re efficient, they can quickly heat up a room to the desired temperature, and then easily maintain that level for a comfortable living environment. That also allows the living areas of your home to be controlled by one form of heating system while electric heaters can be controlled with a timer and thermostat to warm sleeping areas before they’re used.

A second form of electric heating is the storage or night-store heater, which uses stored off-peak electricity to power the heater, reducing running costs even further.
It sounds fairly basic, but night-store heaters have a core of high density bricks that soak up heat during off-peak electricity hours, then slowly release that heat during the day and, because they don’t totally down, rooms are rarely left completely cold.
Night-store heaters are a good supplementary source of heating and work well if there are people in the home during the day but, by the time the cool winter evenings roll around, much of the heat has already been used, leaving little to warm the dwelling when its occupants are, in most cases, all at home.
Unlike standard electric heaters, which have a 100% efficiency rate, night-store heaters are considered to work at about 80% efficiency because they often produce heat when it’s not required (i.e., when there’s nobody at home).
In some areas, electric heating is really the only choice, such as a bathroom where electricity can be used to power heated towel rails, wall-mounted fan heaters and combination heat lamp/exhaust fan systems.

Oil Column Heaters

Oil column heaters have fins or columns filled with oil and use electricity to heat the oil, which then warms the room in which they’re placed.
Because the oil requires warming before the heaters begins to radiate heat, they do take a little longer to warm a room than some other types of heating but, by using a ceiling fan set on a low-speed setting, it is possible to create some air movement in the room, which will help to distribute the heat faster and more efficiently. Some types of oil heaters even have a built-in fan to distribute the warm air around a room more effectively.

One advantage of an oil column heater is that the surface doesn’t get dangerously hot. While still warm enough to make you wary of touching it, the surface temperature doesn’t reach the point that it’s dangerous to leave it in a room for a long period without being attended or leave it running overnight, and it can also make it safer to use around children.

Solid Fuel Burners

If it’s atmosphere you really want, it’s difficult to go past the sight of dancing flames as one of the most visually appealing forms of heating as well as providing a nice touch to a room.

However, you have to be aware of what is or is not allowed when it comes to considering a solid fuel burner for your home with some cities in New Zealand placing some pretty strict restrictions on what type of solid fuel burner you can fit to your home. For example, high-emission burners that use either logs or coal have been outlawed in new homes in many areas because of the amount of pollution they produce. Even for homes that have had them installed for many years are being encouraged to remove them and replace them with low-emission log burners or pellet burners that use wood pellets made from dried and compressed sawdust and wood shavings.

These pellets need a special burner to use them, but they do burn remarkably cleanly.
While sitting on a lamb’s wool rug in front of a roaring open fire sharing a glass of red wine with our loved one may be a romantic notion, it’s hardy the most efficient choice when it comes to heating your home. Open fires are probably one of the least efficient options for transmitting warmth throughout your home because the heat produced by them tends to rise up the chimney rather than be effectively channeled into the room. They can also provide a conduit for cold air to be channeled into a room down through the chimney or flue when the fire’s not in use.
The efficiency considerations aside, open fires should also be placed on the ’Do Not Consider’ list because of the considerable pollution problems they cause. In fact, open fires are not even an option in many areas of the country because they’re outlawed in new homes (and have been for some years) while existing homes with open fires are actively encouraged to remove them and replace them with more efficient heating systems.

The newer versions of log burners are low-emission types, producing low levels of smoke particulates. From September 1 last year, the Ministry for the Environment put restrictions in place for log burners in urban areas, stating that they can produce no more than 1.5 grams of smoke particulate per kilogram of dry wood burnt.
The newer types of log burners are also pretty effective and can heat a pretty large area fairly effectively, producing up to 15kW, or even more, of heating ability, which can warm a large room with a high stud height in a pretty short period of time, and then maintain that heat pretty easily.

Open-plan homes are probably more suited to solid fuel heaters.
One of the big downfalls with any type of sold fuel burner though is the fuel source itself. For log burners, you have to ensure a regular supply of logs to keep your fire burning. These need to be picked up or delivered, often require chopping and then require space to store them. And, if you’re the one that has to go out on a cold winter’s evening to get more logs for your fire, the romance of having a log burner can wear thin pretty quickly.

There are also the ashes to clean and, if you want to have a nice, warm house for your family when they arise in the morning, someone has to get up early to light the fire, and then keep it fuelled until the home is warm.

They also require some pretty serious installation, with flues needing to be installed and adequate clearances around the heater needed to ensure safety.
On the plus side, a sold fuel burner can be hooked up with a wetback option to heat the water in your hot water cylinder, but this can be an expensive option and it’s a good idea to weight up costs against benefits before deciding to take this option.
Depending on where you are in the country, our advice would be to contact your local regulatory body or council to find out what the rules are for installing any type of solid fuel burner in your home - or even if an existing heater in your home currently meets the guidelines set down for your area. You will need to get a building consent from your local council before installing a solid fuel burner.

It’s likely you’ll find that the mention of open fires, coal burners and high-emission will see you hit with a serious frown from those on the business side of the council desk while low-emission wood burners and pellet burners will generate a much more favourable reaction.

Heat Transfer Systems

While making heat in one room is relatively easy, transferring that heat throughout your home can often be difficult unless you’ve got a ducted central heating system or separate heaters in each room.

One of the more popular methods of transferring heat from one room to another is the use of heat transfer kits that use an insulated ducting system and an electric fan to transfer heat from one room to another.
When rooms heat up, the hot air rises and become trapped near the ceiling where it’s ‘unused’. While you continue to heat a room so it’s comfortable where you are, the heat level at the ceiling can continue to rise, created an excess of wasted heat.
By drawing that heat through the heat transfer system, it can be used to heat other rooms in the house, making for a relatively inexpensive method of heating throughout the home.

An added benefit of a heat transfer kit is the fact that by drawing heat from one room and transferring it to another, replacement air is drawn from the surrounding rooms, creating a system of recirculation that can positively affect an entire home.

Making the Most of your Heat
A effective heating system in the home is one thing, but without an effective system of insulation, heating is almost a waste of time so, before the cooler months really make their presence felt, we’re going to take a look at how to heat your home, how to retain that heat in your home and a number of ways you can make your home more energy efficient, allowing your household to save more money than it typically would through those potentially expensive winter months.

Using the heat you have stored in a room can also be improved by the use of a ceiling fan. It doesn’t matter which type of heating you use, the heat from it will tend to stay in a pocket near the ceiling because heat rises, so the installation of a ceiling fan in the middle of a room can improve the distribution of that heat if used on a low-speed setting. Ceiling fans also have the advantage of being able to cool a home in summer by using it on the reversed setting, drawing warm air away from the lower parts of a room and creating some air movement to try and cool the occupants down.

Because large amounts of heat can also escape through poorly sealed windows and doors, you can install self-adhesive draught-stop material around these areas. Light a candle and hold it up to windows and doors to see if there’s a draught coming in and then use a strip of draught -top to seal it off.

Rolls of draught-seal come in various thicknesses, and it pays to take a bit of care to see which one you need for your doors or windows. If the tape is too thick, you’ll have trouble closing your doors or windows and, if it’s too thin, then you still have draughts coming in when they’re closed. To decide which one is best for you, close the door or window and then fold up a piece of paper until it’s the same thickness as the gap (wedge it in the gap to test it). When it’s a tight fit, you have a fairly good idea of the thickness of draught-seal you’ll require.

The bottom of exterior doors is a prime example of where heat can escape and the installation of a draught-exclusions strip to the bottom of a door can also have a positive impact. A door snake (a soft roll laid across the gap at the bottom of a door) can be used, but they can’t seal out all the drafts and they have to be replaced every time someone opens the door.

Preventing heat escaping from your home can be as simple as drawing curtains over windows when the days start to get cooler but, if you’ve got a view that you don ‘t want to block out, then you may want to consider double glazing in your windows. It’s considerably more expensive than installing heavy drapes, but will allow you to still look out your window while improving the insulation properties of your home.
If you’ve got a skylight, then ensure that’s double-glazed too, as a single-glazed skylight just allows the heat to pour out of a home.

Also, make the most of the sun during the day as it’s a free source of heating. This is known as passive solar heating (it also works in reverse in summer when you want to keep your home cool). If you’re planning new home, take the angles of the sun into account - both the summer sun, which rises early and sets late and sits high in the sky, and the winter suns, which rises considerably later, sets earlier and doesn’t climb as far above the horizon.

If you know you’re going to get a considerable amount of sun streaming into your home throughout the day, then open the curtains and let it flood it, then close the curtains again later in the day as it starts to cool. Overhanging tree branches or large shrubs should be trimmed back to allow as much sun as possible to come through the windows.
The installation of carpet or heavy rugs can greatly improve the insulating properties of a home, especially in older homes that have polished timber floors as many of them weren’t fitted with adequate underfloor insulation and a rug on a bare timber floor can greatly improve its insulating properties, while carpet can improve it even more. If you want to retain your bare timber floors, the next option is to install perforated under-floor foil insulation, which has a reflective foil surface designed to reflect escaping heat back up towards the floor.

A damp home is a hard home to heat so you want to prevent condensation during the day, which can make it more difficult to heat at night. Therefore, use a dehumidifier or leave the windows open if possible to get some air flow and fresh air into your home during the day, which can make it much more healthy for the occupants as well.


However, without going to too much trouble, there are some basic, easy and everyday methods you can employ to ensure your home is as efficient as possible when it comes to staying warm this winter:

• Only heat the room you’re in and close doors between rooms to keep the heat in. If you want to heat other rooms in the house, do so by using a separate heating system in that area - this s where your heat ‘zones’ come in;

• If you have a ceiling fan, use it on a slow setting to move heat down into the room from the pocket of hot air that will become trapped under the ceiling;

Use adhesive draught-stop or a door ‘snake’ and block unused chimneys to prevent draughts and stop heat escaping. Block chimneys by using plastic bags stuffed with newspaper. It sounds a little crude, but it works. Just remember to take them out again before using the fireplace - a note left inside the fireplace to remind you is a good idea;

• During the day, use passive solar heating by opening curtains to allow the sun to shine in through the windows, then close the curtains again when the day starts to cool to keep the heat inside;

• Don’t overheat your home. For every degree over 18C that you increase your home heat, it can see your energy bill go up by as much as 5%;

• If you’re working on the principle of heat zones, don’t heat your bedrooms to the temperature level of your living areas. To ensure you’re warm when you got to bed, turn your electric blanket about 20 minutes before going to bed, and then turn it off when you get into bed. To save power though, try an extra blanket on the bed instead;

• Dress for the cold. If you wander around in shorts and a singlet, you can expect to use far more heating energy to keep yourself at a comfortable temperature. Long pants, a sweatshirt and socks can achieve the same result for no added increase in heating;

• Don’t place heaters next to windows. Windows do not retain heat well at all, so ensure heaters are placed away from them if you’re trying to heat a room;

• Insulation allows you to retain the heat you have in your home, and it has a major effect on your heating bill so, if you haven’t got adequate insulation in your home, get it installed as soon as possible;

• Dry homes are much easier to heat than those with high levels of condensation or moisture in the air, so do as much as possible to reduce the amount of moisture created around your home.