Home, dry home: why dealing with damp can make for warmer winters

Where did summer go? Sometimes it feels like one day you’re standing by the pool in your jandals and the next day you’re searching the back of your wardrobe for your woolly jumpers.

Wherever you live in Aotearoa there are times when putting on an extra layer just doesn’t cut it when it comes to keeping warm. That goes double if you have children or older people in your whānau.

It’s a big problem! More than one in five (21%) New Zealanders who’ve moved home in the last five year said that warmth, damp or mould was the main reason for doing so.

Moving to a warmer home is a big call. So what do most of us do when we feel the chill? We pull out that old electric heater, light the fire, or head to the shops to join the queues for a new radiator.

Stop the bus!

At HRV we think there’s another step you can take to make your winters even cosier, and help make your home healthier at the same time.

It’s all about dealing to the damp before you fire up that heater.

When the air in your home is drier, it’s faster and easier to heat. Damp air needs more energy to heat up, which means your heater will be running longer to do the same job. And that means higher power bills!

If your home is damp – look for condensation on the windows in the morning and even mould on your walls and in your wardrobes – it might mean you have a ventilation issue. You can’t stop damp and moisture occurring in a home. It comes from everyday activities like cooking, showering, laundry and even breathing! What you can do is ventilate your home so the damp air doesn’t hang around.

At HRV, we reckon we have a fantastic solution for dampness. HRV AirSense™ is scientifically proven to reduce moisture¹, and helps prevent mould.

It does that by bringing drier air from your roof space, filtering it, then delivering it to your living areas via vents. That damp, stale air is forced out and your home’s moisture levels reduce.

Result? A home that’s easier to heat.

Whichever heating method you choose, a drier home will warm up faster. We recommend heat pumps as a quiet, efficient, east to control heating method and can recommend a single or multi-room solution that works for you. Bonus: in summer, heat pumps work as air conditioners too… so you’ll feel super cool next time you pull out those jandals!

1 Based on a scientific study of 15 New Zealand homes conducted by Unitec Institute of Technology (Auckland) on behalf of HRV during winter and spring 2021. Results may vary depending on design and geographic location of a home.