 The Christchurch Energy Efficiency Show Home
10 Leander Street, Papanui, Christchurch
Open 11am-6pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Open Public Holidays.
Closed Wednesday and Sunday.
The Energy Efficiency Show Home will be closed between 1 December 2009 and 31 January 2010.
The Christchurch City Council purchased a 50 year old house to show people what can be done economically to improve the space heating of a typical Christchurch house of that age:
- draught-stopping has been installed on the doors and windows
- ceiling insulation has been installed
- underfloor insulation has been installed
- the open fires have been sealed and the chimneys capped
- an electric night storage and an electric convection heater have been installed.
In addition, some of the windows have been double-glazed using a variety of methods. A variety of clean air approved heating appliances have been put on display.
There is also display material about:
- ceiling, wall and underfloor insulation
- hot water cylinder insulation
- solar water heating
- lighting using energy efficient technologies.
The Show Home is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11am to 6pm (closed Wednesday and Sunday).
Open Public Holidays. Energy Advisors are on hand to answer questions about the Show Home and they provide free independent advice on how to make your home more energy efficient.
See the map showing directions to 10 Leander Street »
For comfort, the living-rooms in houses should be heated to an ambient temperature of around 20°C and bedrooms and hallways to 18°C. Temperatures below 16°C lead to health problems and dampness.
Insulation is very important for achieving good space heating. Many older houses in New Zealand are poorly insulated. It is prohibitively expensive for most people to heat such houses to comfortable, healthy temperatures. With energy prices ranging from 7 to 20 cents/kWh it would cost thousands of dollars a year, whereas most people can only afford a few hundred dollars a year for space heating. As a result, poorly insulated houses are uncomfortable and unhealthy.
Open fires are not only a significant contributor to winter air pollution, they are also amongst the most inefficient of any form of heating. Did you know your open fire operates at only 15 to 20% efficiency and costs around 40 cents per kilowatt hour to operate? That is nearly twice as mush as it costs to operate an electric or gas heater.
Open Fires:
- produce a lot of pollution because they are often not hot enough to burn fuel completely
- are inefficient at heating when they are burning - 80-85% of the heat goes up the chimney
- actually cool the house when they are not burning because of the draught they create - on a 24 hour basis they often cool houses rather than heat them.
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