If you haven’t noticed, there’s a global movement to reduce our dependance on fossil fuels and move to clean energy sources. New Zealand is seeing a high rate of adoption in electric vehicles and we’re making great strides to move to clean energy produced by solar, wind and hydro. Because the cost of living is so high, New Zealanders are also looking for ways to make their home more energy efficient.

In today’s article going to tackle how you can address one of your biggest household expenses – the cost of heating and cooling your home and how to turn your home into an energy efficient home.

Why is heating and cooling your home so expensive?

A big contributing factor to your household expenses relates to how you heat and cool your home. Running your heater or fan uses a lot of electricity and in typical kiwi households, heating or cooling tends to account for a good sum of the electric bill.

One of the reason’s may kiwi homes are difficult and expensive to heat is that they are poorly insulated. Many older New Zealand homes were built at a time where insulation standards were low. Some insulation products are known to deteriorate over time which will lower its thermal efficiency.

Fully insulating your home helps to seal its thermal envelope so it’s important to install roof, floor and wall insulation. You can read more about your home heat loss and heat gains here, however poor insulation can leave gaps where air can easily escape from your home, making it difficult and costly to maintain a constant temperature. Additionally, this means that any effort put into heating or cooling is quickly lost.

Some obvious signs of a poorly insulated home include:

• Cold drafts
• General dampness
• Condensation on windows
• Mould growth
• Difficulty heating or cooling your home

Insulating your home helps seal all the gaps where air can escape from your house. This completes your home’s thermal envelope and also means less energy and effort is required to heat and cool your home. Not only does insulating your home make it warmer and dryer, but it also saves on your power bills and helps create an energy efficient home.

Funding options to create an energy efficient home

Today, there are a lot of funding options which can help turn your home into an energy efficient one. We’re not going to cover every option available but we are going to cover a few of the main ones below.

ANZ Bank Good Energy Home Loan

Secondly, ANZ Bank has recently launched their ANZ Good Energy Home Loan. This provides a top up loan to property owners who already have their home loans with ANZ. The loan provides up to an $80,000 top up at 1% per annum to help create an energy efficient home. It’s simple and quick to apply for the loan so you can fast track your insulation improvements.

You can learn more about the ANZ Good Energy Home Loan here.

Westpac Bank

Similarly, Westpac announced a new interest-free Westpac Warm Up loan allowing you to invest in upgrading your home insulation. This interest-free loan provides access to up to $40,000 NZD for 5 years.

If you already have a home loan with Westpac, this is a great way to improve your homes energy efficiency. You can find out more about the Westpac Warm Up loans here.

An Interest Free Loan

Pilkington Insulation are partnered with Q-Card and can provide low-interest finance options. Interest free finance offers for your insulation.

Minimum spend and lending conditions apply however this is a simple way to create an energy efficient home!

Discuss insulating your home with Pilkington Insulation

Pilkington Insulation have been warming up Kiwi homes for many years! Today, we are one of the most trusted insulation providers in NZ, so you can be sure your home will be in safe hands. If you’re interested in insulating your home and want to explore funding options then give send us a message or give us a call today on 0508 92 76 87.