Oh pshaw, on Mon 12 Nov 2007 02:37:06p, Miche meant to say...

> In article 0>,
> Wayne Boatwright > wrote:
>
>> Oh pshaw, on Mon 12 Nov 2007 01:18:53p, Miche meant to say...
>
>> > NZ'ers are really behind the times when it comes to insulation -- we
>> > tend to have terribly badly insulated houses, resulting in homes that
>> > are below WHO guidelines for internal temperature and a lot of
>> > unnecessary illness from cold and damp.
>> >
>> > Also, they cost a hell of a lot to heat.
>
>>
>> Since I don't have a clue, Miche, is central heating and central
>> cooling a common or uncommon thing in NZ?
>
> Unusual, yeah. I don't know a private house here that has it (or, if
> they do have it, uses it -- most of the units still extant here date
> from the '60s and early '70s and are oil-fired -- from before the oil
> shock). IMO heat pumps (heat exchangers) don't count, as they tend ot
> heat only one room/space.
>
>> Curious, also... What do the WHO guidlines specify?
>
> Couldn't find the guideline itself in a quick search; found the
> following statement on a Statistics NZ website:
>
> "The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends an indoor temperature of
> at least 18 degrees Celsius, or 21 degrees if a home houses elderly,
> young or disabled people. A third of New Zealand houses are below this
> recommendation."
>
>> What are the conditions typically found in homes there?
>
> A lot of houses are cooler than that; if they're insulated at all it's
> usually only the walls. There's a strong streak of "put a jersey on
> rather than the heater", especially in poorer households, as they can't
> necessarily afford to heat the house to WHO standards. Being
> uninsulated just makes that harder, of course. (The "put a jersey on"
> mentality is good from a conservation point of view but if the internal
> temperature of the house is too low and/or the house is damp, it's not
> going to do you any good healthwise.)
>
>> Yes, without proper insulation, heating and/or cooling costs can
>> increase dramatically.
>
> Don't I know it. The insulation here is dreadful. When we buy a house
> (we're currently renting) we're going to upgrade the insulation, as it's
> more or less bound to be crap.
>
> Miche
>

I think, in general, that the US has been "more advanced" than many
countries when it comes to insulation, heating, and cooling, although I'm
sure we have our share of sub-standard conditions in some areas. At least
I think the US became more proactive with these issues earlier. Adequate
central heating, for example, was not at all uncommon as early as the 1940s
or earlier. Insulation became an important issue in the late 1950s/early
1960s. I would hazard a guess that there are more homes in the US that
have central air conditioning than in any other country, but I could be
wrong about that. In our personal case, we tend to maintain a constant
interior temperature of 73-75 degrees F. year round. In colder US
climates, I think many people will let the winter temperature drop in the
house to the mid-60 degree mark. IIRC, when we lived in Ohio, we usually
kept our house at around 68 degrees F.

--
Wayne Boatwright

(to e-mail me direct, replace cox dot net with gmail dot com)
__________________________________________________ ____________

OK, I'm weird ! But I'm saving up to be eccentric.