8 Upper Hutt
A telephone survey of domestic heating methods and fuels for Upper Hutt was carried out by Digipoll in November 2004. This involved surveying 153 households within the 2001 census area unit (CAU) areas of:
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Survey details are shown in Table 8.1. The number of households for 2004 was estimated based on 2001 census data, 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 Upper Hutt City of 9% by 2021. [High, medium and low population projections were estimated by Statistics New Zealand. The value used is the medium population projection.]
Table 8.1: Summary survey data, Upper Hutt
8.1 Home heating methods and fuels
The Digipoll survey was used to collect information on home heating methods and fuels for Upper Hutt. These data were collected for the purpose of evaluating the impact of variations in heating methods on air quality in Upper Hutt, 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 Upper Hutt largely in tabular form, in the expectation that these results will be of value in other assessments (e.g. emission inventory studies).
Tables 8.2 and 8.3 show domestic heating methods and fuels used for main living areas in Upper Hutt houses, and seasonal variations in heating behaviour. Gas was the most common method of heating the main living areas of houses in Upper Hutt, with 52% of households using this method. Electricity and wood burners were also common at 34% and 28%, respectively. Many households used more than one method of heating in their main living area.
Table 8.2: Domestic home heating methods and fuels, Upper Hutt
Table 8.3 shows that only a small proportion of households in Upper Hutt heat their homes during the summer months. The quantities of fuel used per household per day during the non-winter months are generally less than the amount used during winter (Table 8.4). 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 8.3: Monthly variations in heating behaviour and fuel use, Upper Hutt
Table 8.4: Estimated daily fuel use, by season, Upper Hutt
8.2 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 Upper Hutt are presented in this section.
Figure 8.1 shows that, unlike most urban areas of New Zealand, the majority (71%) of households using gas for heating in Upper Hutt have flued gas systems.
No data were available for heating costs for open fires, oil and pellet burners and multi-fuel burners because of the small number of responses (Table 8.5).
Figure 8.2 shows the average heating costs, home ownership, age of dwelling and number of bedrooms for households in Upper Hutt.
One factor influencing the amount spent on different heating methods is the ability of households using wood burners to obtain wood free of charge. Figure 8.3 shows that around half of the wood used for home heating in Upper Hutt is self-collected.
Figure 8.1: Distribution of flued versus unflued gas heating and age of wood burner, Upper Hutt
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 29% of all gas heating and Flued gas makes up 71%.
The second graph is divided by the age of wood burners. Post-1999 wood burners make up 46%, 1994-99 wood burners make up 22% and the remaining 32% of wood burner are Pre-1994.
Table 8.5: Average monthly heating costs (winter), Upper Hutt
Figure 8.2: Domestic heating method, by average monthly heating expenditure, house ownership, house age and number of bedrooms, Upper Hutt
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 $90, gas $78 and wood burner $66.
The second graph sets out heating methods divided by home tenure. For households living in rentals 1092 use electric, 624 use gas, 156 use open fire, 312 use wood burners, 0 use pellet burners, 0 use multi-fuel and 0 use oil. For households living in their own house 2965 use electricity, 5540 use gas, 624 use open fires, 3043 use wood burners, 78 use pellet burners, 390 use multi-fuel and 78 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 17% electric, 22% gas, 12% wood burners, 0% multi fuel and 10% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses between 11 and 20 years old are 12% electric, 13% gas, 23% wood burners, 20% multi fuel and 0% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses between 21 and 40 years old are 27% electric, 39% gas, 37% wood burners, 40% multi fuel and 30% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses over 41years old are 33% electric, 24% gas, 28% wood burners, 40% multi fuel and 60% open fires.
The fourth graph sets out particular heating methods by the number of bedrooms.
- Heating methods for houses with one bedroom are 0% electricity, 1% gas, 2% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with two bedrooms are 19% electricity, 9% gas, 2% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 30% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with three bedrooms are 42% electricity, 54% gas, 51% wood burner, 60% multi fuel and 50% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with four bedrooms are 21% electricity, 25% gas, 28% wood burner, 40% multi fuel and 20% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with five bedrooms are 4% electricity, 8% gas, 16% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with six bedrooms are 6% electricity, 0% gas, 0% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
Figure 8.3: Proportions of fuel obtained free of charge versus bought, Upper Hutt
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 50% of their fuel, those using wood burners bought 45% of their fuel and those using multi-fuel burners bought 50% of their fuel.
Table 8.6: Type of electric heating, Upper Hutt
The main type of electric heating used by households in their main living area in Upper Hutt were portable oil column heaters, radiant heaters and fan heaters, used by 41%, 24% and 22% of households using electric heating, respectively (Table 8.6). Around 12% of households using electricity used heat pumps in their main living area.
Detailed data on home heating method, by house ownership, are shown in Table 8.7.
Table 8.7: Home heating method, by house ownership, Upper Hutt
Household insulation types and heating methods are shown in Tables 8.8 and 8.9. Around 8% of households report having no insulation and 36% two types of insulation. Table 8.10 shows home heating method, by household income. The overall non-response rate was around 20%. This limits the use of these data, because there may be an income bias in the non-respondents.
Table 8.8: House insulation summary statistics, Upper Hutt
Table 8.9: Degree of house insulation, by heating method, Upper Hutt
Table 8.10: Home heating method, by household income, Upper Hutt
Tables 8.11 and 8.12 show the relationship between heating methods and the age of the dwelling and number of bedrooms, respectively.
