Last Modified: 12 March 2012
Sustainability
Energy efficiency
|
|
|
Have you received the energy efficiency flyer in your rates notice offering a subsidy for installing insulation
or clean heating in your home?
|
Click here
to find approved insulation and clean heating providers and get a free
no obligation
quote or call EECA ENERGYWISE on 0800 749 782.
|
| Note: this offer only applies to homes built before the year 2000. |
Warm up New Zealand, Heat Smart programme
|
Choosing to manage the way you use energy means you can have lower
power bills, a warmer, healthier home and lower your impact on our
environment.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
(EECA) can help New Zealand home owners and landlords with the costs of
insulating or installing clean heating in New Zealand homes.
For
homes built before the year 2000, The Warm up New Zealand, Heat Smart
programme offers a 33% subsidy (up to $1300) off your insulation or
clean heating installation costs.
This funding can also be used for other energy efficiency measures, including:
- a hot water cylinder wrap
- pipe lagging
- draught-stopping
- a ground moisture barrier
If you are a Community Services
Card holder or you are a landlord whose tenants have a Community
Services Card, you can get 60% off the cost of insulation and clean heat
(Community Services Card funding is limited, so please get in soon).
Click here to find approved insulation and clean heating providers and get a free no obligation quote.
To get the best value try getting at least three different quotes.
|
Greater Wellington Regional Council financial assistance
|
In addition to an EECA subsidy, Wellington home owners can also borrow
up to $2,600 from Greater Wellington Regional Council and repay it
through your regional rates bill.
The loan will be repaid over
nine years and the interest rate is currently set at 7%. This means that
if you were to borrow $1,000 to help meet your costs of insulating your
home, you would repay approximately $40 extra on top of your quarterly
regional rates bill for the next 9 years.
At 7% interest, the total you would repay over 9 years would be $1429.74.
Click here or call 0800 496 734 to find out more about the Greater Wellington Regional Council loan scheme.
|
Benefits of home insulation and clean heating
|
| Energy efficiency is not about going without - it is about getting
more for your money and stopping waste. The benefits of insulating your
home are: |
1)
|
you will lower your power bills
|
| 2)
|
you will have a warmer and drier home |
3)
|
a warmer drier home means a much healthier home
(this is particularly beneficial for members of your family with asthma)
|
4)
|
reduces maintenance costs associated with damp and mould invading your home. Also, due to increased energy efficiency,
|
5)
|
it lowers your impact on our environment.
|
|
Cheap and easy things I can do to improve the efficiency of my home
|
An energy efficient home costs less to run. You can save money on your power bill by doing a few simple things:
- turn off electrical appliances you don’t need at the wall e.g. second fridge, TV etc.
- installing an efficient shower head (test – if your shower fills up a 10L bucket in less than a minute, replace it with a more efficient one)
- insulating the hot water cylinder and the first few meters of hot water pipe
- ensure all windows have curtains (curtains are much better than blinds at keeping heat in). Free curtains for Community Services Card holders are available through the Earthlink curtain bank
- close your curtains 30 minutes before the sun sets to keep the heat in
- double lining curtains in winter is a great way to increase heat retention
- stopping drafts and gaps around doors, windows and unused chimneys
- dry your clothes outside rather than using a dryer
- wash clothes in cold water
- use a household energy meter to monitor your appliance consumption – meters cost about $25 at hardware stores and can be attached to your appliances (e.g. electric heaters are big energy users) so you can keep track of how much energy you have used. You can even tell you how much money you are spending by entering the cost of your electricity from your energy bill.
Please see the ENERGYWISE website for more information on being warmer and healthier in your home. |
|
More things you can do that will save you money and reduce your carbon footprint
|
Drive less and more efficiently
- see the Fuel$aver and RightCar websites for vehicle fuel efficiency,
safety and pollution information about your vehicle. These websites
especially useful for comparing the fuel efficiency, safety and
pollution ratings of new cars
- if buying a new car, always look
for the fuel efficiency star rating (6 stars is best and means the
lowest fuel running cost for that class of vehicle)
- as transport fuel prices increase, sustainable transport options are becoming more and more important.
|
Buy Energy Efficient Appliances
If
you are buying a new appliance, the cost of the energy that appliance
will use throughout its entire life is added to its purchase cost.
Typical appliances include:
- Heating appliances (heaters, tumble dryers, irons and kettles)
- Refrigeration appliances (Fridges, freezers and air conditioners)
- Cleaning appliances (washing machines and vacuum cleaners)
- Cooking appliances (ovens, microwaves, food preparation appliances)
- Home entertainment – (TVs, DVD players, stereo systems, gaming consoles)
- Home office equipment – (computers, printers, telephones and faxes)
Look for Energy Rating Labels on new electronic
appliances (they are compulsory on all new white ware and heat pumps).
These
labels tell you how much energy the appliance will use in a year (which
you can use to figure out how much it will cost to run) and the star
rating system lets you compare different makes and models of the same
appliance at a glance.
Once you add all of these things together
and making sure you buy efficient appliances and insulating your home,
the savings start to stack up.
|
Efficient Hot Water Heating
About 30% of the average households energy use goes on heating hot water.
Download the Get more from your hot water guide to learn about how you can save money and become more efficient with water heating and consumption.
Currently there is additional EECA funding
available to help with the cost of installing energy efficient hot water
heating systems using either a heat pump water heater or a solar water
heater.
The efficient water heating programme allocates
the highest grants to solar water heating systems and heat pump water
heaters that save the most energy. Grants of $1000 or $500 are available
for eligible systems.
Click here to find out more about ENERGYWISE funding for solar water heating systems and heat pump water heaters.
EECA funding through the Warm up New Zealand,
Heat Smart programme will also cover cylinder wraps and pipe lagging.
Please note: while cylinder wraps may appear to
be simple to install, if your cylinder is older, the pipe/cylinder
connection may be vulnerable to damage (leakage) if jostled when
installing the cylinder wrap. If you are unsure, click here to find an approved insulation provider, who can carry out the installation.
|
|
Micro-generation (domestic-scale distributed energy generation)
|
Micro-generation refers to electricity generation technologies for your home or a small business.
Micro-generation is becoming increasingly popular and is an important energy resource both now and for the future.
Increasing fossil fuel energy prices and increasing micro-generation popularity mean that the technology and costs of micro-generation are becoming more economic. However, please note that electricity costs in New Zealand remains a more affordable option for the short to medium term, as the costs of setting up micro-generation systems are often high.
If you are interested in reducing your energy costs, you should start by improving the energy efficiency of your home or business first.
While the payback period for many domestic micro-generation devices is long term, many now consider this to be a worthwhile investment (just like buying your own house).
Mature micro-generation technologies available in New Zealand include:
- solar photovoltaic (or PV); using the sun to generate electricity
- micro –wind; using the wind to generate electricity
- micro-hydro; using flowing water to generate electricity
To find out more about micro-generation options, what system would be best for you and who to talk to; please download and read the EECA information booklet Power from the people: a guide to micro-generation
This guide is intended to provide guidance to both home and business owners who are interested in generating their own electricity, but need more information before going ahead. It is directed at the layperson who already has some basic knowledge of micro-generation
|
|
You are here >> 
