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9 Te Kuiti

A telephone survey of domestic heating methods and fuels for Te Kuiti was carried out by Digipoll in November 2004. This involved surveying 150 households within the 2001 census area unit (CAU) area of Te Kuiti.

Survey details are shown in Table 9.1. The number of households for 2004 was estimated based on 2001 census data for occupied dwellings, extrapolated for 2004 based on Statistics New Zealand population projections. [New Zealand Statistics 2004, www.stats.govt.nz] The latter suggest a population projection for Waitomo District of 10% by 2021. [High, medium and low population projections were estimated by Statistics New Zealand. The value used is the medium population projection.] It is assumed that the population decrease for the district as a whole apply to the urban area of Te Kuiti.

Table 9.1: Summary survey data, Te Kuiti

9.1 Home heating methods and fuels

The Digipoll survey was used to collect information on home heating methods and fuels for Te Kuiti. These data were collected for the purpose of evaluating the impact of variations in heating methods on air quality in Te Kuiti, in particular the extent of change required to achieve the national environmental standard for PM₁₀. This section presents the results of the home heating survey for Te Kuiti largely in tabular form, in the expectation that these results will be of value in other assessments (eg, emission inventory studies).

Tables 9.2 and 9.3 show domestic heating methods and fuels used for the main living areas in Te Kuiti houses, and seasonal variations in heating behaviour. Wood burners were the most common method of heating the main living areas of houses in Te Kuiti, with 49% of households using this method. Electricity and gas were also common methods at 39% and 29%, respectively. Many households used more than one method of heating in their main living area. Overall, 67% of households in Te Kuiti used wood and 5% used coal for heating in their main living areas.

Table 9.2: Domestic home heating methods and fuels, Te Kuiti

Table 9.3 shows that very few households in Te Kuiti heat their homes during the summer months. Those that do typically use gas, and heat their house seven days a week. Daily fuel use per household is generally less during the non-winter months (Table 9.4). Data are not presented for all heating methods because there was a high non-response rate for questions relating to seasonal variations and fuel use for some heating types.

Table 9.3: Monthly variations in heating behaviour and fuel use, Te Kuiti

Table 9.4: Estimated daily fuel use, by season, Te Kuiti

9.2 Insulation, cost of heating, income, and house age and size

In addition to collecting data for the purpose of evaluating the impact of variations in heating methods on air quality, information was collected on a number of variables relevant to the Ministry for the Environment's Warm Homes Project. Relevant data for Te Kuiti are presented in this section.

Figure 9.1 shows that in Te Kuiti around 28% of households using gas have flued gas systems. This is consistent with the national average (also 28%).

The average amount spent on solid fuel methods in Te Kuiti ranges from $31 for wood burners to $47 dollars per month for open fires (Table 9.5). This compares to a national average of around $60 per month.

Figure 9.2 shows the average heating costs, home ownership, age of dwelling and number of bedrooms for households in Te Kuiti. Unlike other areas of New Zealand, installations of open fires into new dwellings (less than 10 years old) are not present in Te Kuiti.

Figure 9.1: Distribution of flued versus unflued gas heating and age of wood burner, Te Kuiti

Text description of figure

There are two pie graphs. The first graph shows the distribution of flued and unflued gas heaters. Unflued gas makes up 72% of all gas heating and Flued gas makes up 28%.

The second graph is divided by the age of wood burners. Post-1999 wood burners make up 27%, 1994-99 wood burners make up 20% and the remaining 53% of wood burner are Pre-1994.

Table 9.5: Average monthly heating costs (winter), Te Kuiti

Figure 9.2: Domestic heating method, by average monthly heating expenditure, house ownership, house age and number of bedrooms, Te Kuiti

Average heating cost per month (winter)

House ownership

Age of dwelling

Number of bedrooms

Text description of figure

There are four bar graphs.

The first graph sets out the average heating cost per month in winter. Cost per month by heating methods are: electric $88, gas $86, open fire $47, wood burner $31, multi-fuel $41 and oil $15.

The second graph sets out heating methods divided by home tenure. For households living in rentals 177 use electric, 94 use gas, 31 use open fire, 146 use wood burners, 0 use pellet burners, 31 use multi-fuel and 0 use oil.

For households living in their own house 437 use electricity, 354 use gas, 104 use open fires, 624 use wood burners, 0 use pellet burners, 125 use multi-fuel and 21 use oil.

The third graph sets out the age of a dwelling using a particular method of heating.

Heating methods for houses under 10 years old are 3% electric, 12% gas, 5% wood burners, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fires.
Heating methods for houses between 11 and 20 years old are 7% electric, 9% gas, 18% wood burners, 7% multi fuel and 8% open fires.
Heating methods for houses between 21 and 40 years old are 47% electric, 40% gas, 26% wood burners, 60% multi fuel and 31% open fires.
Heating methods for houses over 41years old are 36% electric, 30% gas, 46% wood burners, 33% multi fuel and 54% open fires.

The fourth graph sets out particular heating methods by the number of bedrooms.

Heating methods for houses with one bedroom are 7% electricity, 2% gas, 1% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
Heating methods for houses with two bedrooms are 19% electricity, 14% gas, 1% wood burner, 7% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
Heating methods for houses with three bedrooms are 41% electricity, 51% gas, 54% wood burner, 67% multi fuel and 77% open fire.
Heating methods for houses with four bedrooms are 25% electricity, 26% gas, 34% wood burner, 27% multi fuel and 23% open fire.
Heating methods for houses with five bedrooms are 7% electricity, 7% gas, 9% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
Heating methods for houses with six bedrooms are 0% electricity, 0% gas, 0% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.

Table 9.6: Type of electric heating, Te Kuiti

The main type of electric heater used by households in their main living area in Te Kuiti were portable oil column heaters and fan heaters, used by 38% and 22% of households using electric heating, respectively (Table 9.6). Around 9% of households using electricity used heat pumps in their main living area.

Detailed data on home heating methods, by house ownership, are shown in Table 9.7.

Table 9.7: Home heating method, by house ownership, Te Kuiti

Household insulation types and heating methods are shown in Tables 9.8 and 9.9. Table 9.8 shows that around 18% of houses report having no insulation. This is higher than the national average of 10%.

Table 9.10 shows home heating method, by household income. The overall non-response rate was around 14%. This limits the use of these data because there may be an income bias in non-respondents. The non-response rate for households with open fires, however, was zero. Results indicate that about half of the households surveyed with open fires have an annual average income of less than $30,000 and around 24% have an annual income of more than $50,000. (Note that these data should be treated as indicative only because the total number of respondents with open fires in the survey was small).

Warm Homes Technical Report: Home Heating Methods and Fuels in New Zealand