The Insulation Association of New Zealand Inc. welcomes the release of BRANZ Study Report SR511, Household Energy End-use Project 2, indoor temperatures in New Zealand homes.
The report confirms what the sector has seen on the ground. Homes are warmer than they were, and the gains are real, but a substantial share of the housing stock still sits below the World Health Organization’s recommended indoor temperature for a healthy home through winter.
Heating, ventilation, cooling, moisture management and occupant behaviour all matter. None of them replaces the need for an effective thermal envelope. A house that leaks heat as fast as it is warmed costs its occupants money every hour the heater runs.
The Association’s position is that the retrofit job is not finished. Ceiling and underfloor insulation installed before the current Standard came into force is frequently thinner than today’s requirement, and in many homes it has been disturbed, compressed or displaced in the years since.
Installation quality is the part of this the Association can influence directly. Insulation that is specified correctly and then fitted poorly does not deliver the R-value on the label, and the occupant has no way of knowing. That is the gap PROVE the R™ was built to close.
IAONZ will continue to work with BRANZ, EECA and MBIE on the evidence base, and with its members on the quality of what goes into the roof, the floor and the walls.
Heating, ventilation and moisture management all matter. None of them replaces the need for an effective thermal envelope.
