Do you want a warmer, drier, healthier home?

Published on 28 July 2022

• Is your home cold or damp?
• Is your heating bill skyrocketing?
• Find out how healthy your home is with our free service.

Winter is here and so are increased heating bills, excess moisture and for some, draughts.

If you want to create a warmer, drier home, reduce your environmental impact or save money on running costs, give one of our Home Energy Audit Toolkits (HEAT kits) a try, or book an assessment with our Eco Design Advisor (EDA) Service.

Both services are designed to help you find out how healthy your home is and to get advice on to how to improve it.

And guess what, won’t cost you a thing.

We’re on a mission to promote warm, healthy homes in Upper Hutt. It’s part of our Sustainability Strategy and we want everyone in Upper Hutt to be able to take advantage of this service, so we’re funding the kits and the EDA Service, normally $200 per house.

Did you know

• The World Health Organization outlines that improved housing conditions can save lives, prevent disease, increase quality of life, reduce poverty, and help mitigate climate change (through the reduction of energy use).
  
  
• It is in all our best interest to have kiwis living in warm, dry healthy homes.  It leads to fewer illnesses and disease, lower energy use, and lower carbon footprint. On a practical sense, damp air is harder to heat than clean air.
  
  
• New Zealand has a poor history of unhealthy homes; cold, damp, poor quality houses are linked to a raft of diseases such as asthma, respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia etc.
  
  
• There is even a dedicated group in Wellington, the Wellington Regional Healthy Housing Group (WRHHG), whose broad aim is to more effectively coordinate the response to housing quality and supply challenges in the Wellington region, and lobby decision-makers in order to achieve the WRHHG vision: Everyone in the Wellington Region lives in warm, dry and safe housing by 2025.
  
  
• Healthy homes are just better for everyone.

How it works

There are a few options to choose from:

DIY

• If you fancy yourself as a bit of a DIY guru, why not borrow a Home Energy Audit Toolkits (HEAT kit) from the library.
  
  
• There are three kits available. It’s just like checking out a book so you’ll need your library card. The kit comes with an instruction guide.
  
  
• Just follow the instructions in the HEAT kit instruction guide. This will help you assess how healthy your home is.

Book a free assessment

• If you’d prefer some to come and do the assessment for you, free of charge, just book a visit with Gregory Street from the Eco Design Advisor (EDA) Service.

• Gregory visits homes in Upper Hutt and gives free, independent advice about making homes warmer, drier, and more energy efficient.
  
  
• You get a list of prioritised recommendations to improve the performance of your home. It’s important to note that EDAs don’t sell products. They provide impartial advice relating to heating, insulation and ventilation – tailored to meet your individual needs.
  
  
• We’d love to hear how you found the service and what improvements you’ve made. Share your story with us and we’ll spread the word to other Upper Hutt residents.