It's not the cold, it's the lack of heat

Several of you have heard me whine about how cold it is here. But it's not the outside temperature that is so cold, it's the INSIDE temperature. Our house has 3 teeny wall heaters, no insulation and single glazed windows. It is not a new house, but it's not old either. Central heat and air are considered luxuries. Most Kiwis are accustomed to having frost on the inside of their windows all winter.

When we started looking for a new house, we were astonished by the number of homes that had ONLY WOOD HEAT. They advertise a fireplace as a "log burner". One house we looked at had a "nightstore heater", which we had heard of elsewhere. So, of course, we googled it. Turns out, its just an electric heater that runs only at night when electricity is cheap (er). Bob also found a site that had done some analyses of the most efficient heating systems for homes of different types in different areas. Of the 10 scenarios across the country, only one left the heat on all the time, and only a few were for insulated homes.

The typical scenario was a family in a 30 year old house with no insulation who heated ONE ROOM in the morning before work and ONE ROOM in the evening. Are these people nuts or what? Electricity is 20c/KWH during the day and 12c/KWH at night. I don't have any idea how this compares, but I think I'll look. Really, living here in the winter sounds more like camping!