15 Balclutha
A telephone survey of domestic heating methods and fuels for Balclutha was carried out by Digipoll in October 2004. This involved surveying 150 households within the 2001 census area unit (CAU) area of Balclutha.
Survey details are shown in Table 15.1. 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 decrease for Clutha District of 13% 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 this decrease applies to the urban area of Balclutha.
Table 15.1: Summary survey data, Balclutha
15.1 Home heating methods and fuels
The Digipoll survey was used to collect information on home heating methods and fuels for Balclutha. These data were collected for the purpose of evaluating the impact of variations in heating methods on air quality in Balclutha, 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 Balclutha largely in tabular form, in the expectation that these results will be of value in other assessments (eg, emission inventory studies).
Tables 15.2 and 15.3 show domestic heating methods and fuels used for main living areas in Balclutha houses, and seasonal variations in heating behaviour. The commonest method of heating the main living area in Balclutha houses was electricity, which was used by 53% of households. Many households used more than one method of heating in their main living area.
The main difference in home heating methods for Balclutha was the large proportion of houses (42%) using multi-fuel burners for domestic home heating. Overall, 74% of households in Balclutha used wood and 47% used coal, although this includes 40% of households with multi-fuel burners that also burn wood. In fact a greater quantity of coal is burnt in Balclutha than wood (24 tonnes versus 17 tonnes per day, on average).
Table 15.2: Domestic home heating methods and fuels, Balclutha
Another point of difference for Balclutha is the high proportion of households using heating during the summer months (Table 15.3). In particular, over 10% of the households using solid fuel burning heat their houses during summer. On average these households burn on five days per week during the summer months. Data are not presented for all heating methods, because there was a high non-response rate for questions relating to seasonal variations for some heating types.
Table 15.4 shows the quantity of fuel used per household per day to be typically less during the non-winter months.
Table 15.3: Monthly variations in heating behaviour and fuel use, Balclutha
Table 15.4: Estimated daily fuel use, by season, Balclutha
15.2 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 Balclutha are presented in this section.
Figure 15.1 shows that the proportion of households using gas systems that are properly flued in Balclutha is similar to the national average (23% in Balclutha compared with 28% in the national survey).
The amount spent on heating for a winter month by heating method is shown in Table 15.5. In Balclutha, households heating using open fires spent less per month on average (around $40) than households using electricity (around $115) on average.
Figure 15.2 shows the average heating costs, home ownership, age of dwelling and number of bedrooms for households in Balclutha. Around 17% of the respondents in Balclutha were living in rented accommodation, and the majority (72%) of these households used electricity to heat the main living area.
One factor influencing the amount spent on different heating methods is the ability of households using solid fuel burners to obtain wood free of charge. Figure 15.3 shows that the vast majority of wood burnt on open fires is self-collected, whereas around two-thirds of the wood burnt on wood and multi-fuel burners is bought.
Figure 15.1: Distribution of flued versus unflued gas heating and age of wood burner, Balclutha
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 77% of all gas heating and Flued gas makes up 23%.
The second graph is divided by the age of wood burners. Post-1999 wood burners make up 31%, 1994-99 wood burners make up 22% and the remaining 47% of wood burner are Pre-1994.
Table 15.5: Average monthly heating costs (winter), Balclutha
Figure 15.2: Domestic heating method, by average monthly heating expenditure, house ownership, house age and number of bedrooms, Balclutha
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 $114, gas $57, open fire $39, wood burner $53 and multi-fuel $77.
The second graph sets out heating methods divided by home tenure. For households living in rentals 197 use electric, 55 use gas, 11 use open fire, 66 use wood burners, 0 use pellet burners, 66 use multi-fuel and 0 use oil. For households living in their own house 677 use electricity, 186 use gas, 109 use open fires, 349 use wood burners, 11 use pellet burners, 622 use multi-fuel and 22 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, 0% gas, 0% wood burners, 5% multi fuel and 0% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses between 11 and 20 years old are 14% electric, 5% gas, 16% wood burners, 14% multi fuel and 0% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses between 21 and 40 years old are 35% electric, 32% gas, 21% wood burners, 29% multi fuel and 36% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses over 41years old are 39% electric, 41% gas, 58% wood burners, 44% multi fuel and 64% open fires.
The fourth graph sets out particular heating methods by the number of bedrooms.
- Heating methods for houses with one bedroom are 4% electricity, 0% gas, 0% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with two bedrooms are 20% electricity, 18% gas, 5% wood burner, 10% multi fuel and 36% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with three bedrooms are 51% electricity, 55% gas, 58% wood burner, 57% multi fuel and 27% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with four bedrooms are 15% electricity, 27% gas, 26% wood burner, 24% multi fuel and 36% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with five bedrooms are 6% electricity, 0% gas, 11% wood burner, 10% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with six bedrooms are 3% electricity, 0% gas, 0% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
Figure 15.3: Proportions of fuel obtained free of charge versus bought, Balclutha
Text description of figure
This bar graph shows the amount of wood either bought or collected free of charge by three different types of heating.
Those using open fires bought 6% of their fuel, those using wood burners bought 73% of their fuel and those using multi-fuel burners bought 67% of their fuel.
Table 15.6: Type of electric heating, Balclutha
The commonest types of electric heating used in the main living area in Balclutha houses were fan heaters and heat pumps (Table 15.6). The latter usage is greater than the national average (13%).
Data on home heating methods, by house ownership, are shown in Table 15.7.
Table 15.7: Home heating method, by house ownership, Balclutha
Household insulation types and heating methods are shown in Tables 15.8 and 15.9. Around 8% of households in Balclutha indicated that the house had no insulation. This compares with a national average of 10%. The majority of households indicated that the dwelling had ceiling insulation and 47% had wall insulation.
Table 15.10 shows home heating method, by household income. The overall non-response rate was around 18%. This limits the interpretation of these data because there may be an income bias in the non-respondents. The response rate within the open fire category, however, was 100%. Results for this category indicate that the majority of households using open fires had an annual income of less than $40,000, with 45% earning less than $20,000.
Table 15.8: House insulation summary statistics, Balclutha
Table 15.9: Degree of house insulation, by heating method, Balclutha
Table 15.10: Home heating method, by household income, Balclutha
Tables 15.11 and 15.12 show the relationship between heating methods and the age of the dwelling and number of bedrooms, respectively.
