Dim Post on Housing Insulation

I think that the government/Green Party initiative to insulate New Zealand’s housing stock is brilliant both in a general sense in that it will knock tens of billions of dollars off our public health bill over time and in a personal sense in that I’ve recently bought a 1920’s villa and the place is like a fucking deep freeze.

And that’s the mystery. Why have people have been living in this house for 80 to 90 years with no insulation and no proper heating? And why is almost every house in New Zealand like that? I guess it seems normal until you spend a few years living overseas and realise that the rest of the developed world spends winter in relative comfort inside insulated, centrally heated homes.

I agree that in Europe, you never come across a non insulated and centrally heated home – well not often anyway.

It will be interesting to see the exact details tomorrow.