The expected national electricity crisis and ongoing moves to clean up the city’s winter air mean many Christchurch householders are facing conflicting pressures about how they should heat their homes.

The Christchurch City Council aims to help ratepayers with its free advice service, based at the Energy Efficiency Show Home at 10 Leander Street in Papanui.

“We’re not selling anything so we can talk to you about all the alternatives and what would best suit your home and what you can afford,” says Energy Advisor Lena Gulco.

“You know, it’s always better to do a little bit than nothing,” she says. “A lot of people are in older homes and can’t afford much, but there’s still things you can do which don’t cost much and will make your home warmer and healthier.”

As part of its energy efficiency efforts the City Council bought the fairly typical 40-year-old house in Papanui to use as a showplace for practical, affordable steps people can take to improve the space heating of a typical Christchurch house of that age.

The Show Home is open from Thursdays to Tuesdays from 11am to 6pm. Leander Place is off Sawyers Arms Road, east of the Riccarton Mall expansion.

The home has several draught-stopping products installed on the doors and windows, there are examples of ceiling and under-floor insulation, the open fires have been sealed and the chimneys capped and electric night-storage and electric convection heating has been installed.

“At the Show Home, we’re not pushing any one type of heating,” says Leonid Itskovich, the City Council’s Energy Manager. “What the advisors can do is talk to you about the merits and problems associated with electricity or different fuels or types of insulation and about the running costs.

“The idea is to talk about your home and look at what you can do, what you can afford to do, to make it warmer and more energy efficient,” he says.

The Show Home has installed a variety of window double-glazing products and clean-air approved heating appliances. There is also display material about ceiling, wall and under-floor insulation, hot-water cylinder insulation, solar water heating and lighting using energy efficient technologies.

The City Council is also doing its bit to conserve energy in city buildings and equipment. Although special efforts are being taken by Council staff to help meet the current national savings target, the Council’s general energy programme is not a seasonal campaign, but runs all year around, continually searching for ways to conserve energy.

“Since 1994 the Council’s been doing something different to save power,” Mr Itskovich says. “We have a systematic programme of measures and projects, not as a seasonal campaign. As a result, we were achieving a steady reduction of our energy use every year.”

Over seven years the Council’s energy management efforts have accumulated savings of 27 per cent.The programme is held up as a benchmark throughout New Zealand. In 2002, the CCC won the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s (EECA) Supreme Energy-Wise Award and its Sustained Achievement Award. Mr Itskovich too has been honoured with an EECA award.

“It’s important to understand that the energy saved by energy-wise companies is still in the hydro lakes, in the form of water,” Mr Itskovich says. “Companies which are serious about energy conservation don’t wait for a special call to do things, and they don't wait until the situation becomes alarming. They just do it at all times.”