Keeping Your Home Warm

Making changes that help you to keep your home warm will have four benefits: you will feel more comfortable in your home, save money on your power bill, conserve energy and it will be good for your health.

The World Health Organisation recommends a minimum internal temperature of 18°C.  Below 16°C there is an increased risk of respiratory disease, so keeping your home warm will help keep you healthy.  

Many of our homes were built before insulation was required to be installed and unfortunately many homes were never retrofitted with insulation.  About 40% of heat can escape through an uninsulated roof and 10% through an uninsulated floor.  No curtains or badly fitted curtains also allow heat to escape.  

Similarly, gaps under doors or around windows also make it hard for us to heat our home.  

Many people just give up trying to heat their home adequately because with all the ways in which heat can escape, but these problems can be fixed.

What can you do?


Insulation

The most effective and important way to keep your home warmer is to install insulation, particularly in the ceiling.  It is often relatively simple to install insulation under the floor.  Putting insulation in the walls is a major job so it is best done when renovating.  

It is better to put a modest amount of insulation throughout the house rather than concentrating on one area or room.  If you have to choose, concentrate on the ceiling because this is where most heat is lost.

Reducing draughts

Trying to heat draughty rooms is difficult and expensive but there are things you can do to reduce draughts and heat loss.  

  • Sealing gaps will reduce heat loss for relatively little cost:
  • block off open fireplaces if they are not in use
  • use draught stoppers to close off the gaps under doors
  • use draught strips or seals on windows and doors
  • good fitting curtains reduce heat loss at night and keep in the heat gain from the sun during the day – to be effective the curtains must fit snugly to trap a layer of air between them and the glass
  • double-glazing can halve the heat loss of single glazed windows but you’ll still need curtains.

Portions of this fact sheet were sourced from BRANZ Home Series Bulletin 8 "Reducing heat loss"
www.branz.org.nz

©Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand (Inc.) 2005  Photocopy permission granted