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| Helping hand for heating a 'Wiese' decision |
| With a baby on the way, the Wiese
family decided to improve the heating system in their Somerfield home. New mother Jane
Wiese says a Christchurch City Council grant made it easy for them to replace their open
fire with an inbuilt Woodsman solid fuel heater The Wieses are one of around 400 Christchurch households to save up to $500 on installing a clean air heating system in the Council's Helping Hand for Heating programme, co-sponsored by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. Pollution and power bills are the twin targets of the programme, which aims to help replace 7,000 Christchurch open fires and coal burners over the next four years, says Helping Hand for Heating administrator Mike Gaudin. "This offer is for people thinking about moving to cleaner heating. The added incentive is the opportunity to cut right back on power bills by insulating effectively. It is impossible to warm a house that does not retain heat. By insulating before deciding on a heating system, people can drastically reduce their energy bills," says Mike Gaudin, which is where the insulation side of the offer comes in. |
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Cleaning up the City's air is the other objective.
"As well as causing a significant amount of Christchurch's winter air pollution, open fires operate at only 15 to 20 per cent efficiency, which makes them relatively more expensive than other forms of heating, so it makes good economic as well as environmental sense to move to electricity, gas, or other forms of cleaner heating," he says.
For more information,
contact Mike Gaudin on 941 6433.
Jane and son Jacob with
Mike Gaudin