Healthy Homes Guarantee Act standards announced

[Spoook]

I would not be providing a 4.5kW heater :-) It would be as I said above, two heaters, until I find out further info.

"existing heating". Does this have to be fixed heating or the heater that was already provided?
This new rule is going to be very hard to fulfill.

[Wayne]

I would not be providing a 4.5kW heater :-) It would be as I said above, two heaters, until I find out further info.

"existing heating". Does this have to be fixed heating or the heater that was already provided?
This new rule is going to be very hard to fulfill.

All heating has to be fixed. So a plug in heater wouldn't be considered as existing.
2 heaters would imply 2x2.4kw so if you are adding additional topup I don't see how you can do this with it needing to be 1.5kw or less.

[Spoook]

The existing is a movable, plug in heater. So that comes home and two heaters, a 2.4 and a 2kW, are installed. (did the calculator twice, one time 4.2 another 4.5)
No top up, hence I do not need to be concerned with the 1.5kW or less additional heat source.
That ok?

[Wayne]

The existing is a movable, plug in heater. So that comes home and two heaters, a 2.4 and a 2kW, are installed. (did the calculator twice, one time 4.2 another 4.5)
No top up, hence I do not need to be concerned with the 1.5kW or less additional heat source.
That ok?

Were the 2.4 and 2 installed before July 2019? If not then at least one is a topup and too big to be so.
Not for me to OK what you do - I really don't care!

[Spoook]

Both heaters would be new.

[Wayne]

Both heaters would be new.

Very circular - if they weren't existing then they are new then they don't comply as the heating requirement can't be covered by an electric heater (other than Heat Pump) if over 2.4kW.

[Spoook]

So, I am forced to install a heat pump ?!

[Thinkingbutnotdoing]

its unhelpful isn't it. I live in a fraemohs house (like a lockwood). Its near impossible to find a wall in a sensible place to install a heat pump, most of them are too short due to the interlocking nature of the house. We have a heatpump but its 2m across from a large window and next to another large window so doesn't work too well at heating....

[Wayne]

So, I am forced to install a heat pump ?!

If you read the rules that's the direction it is pushing you.
Best option for the tenant since they are so much cheaper to run.
I know if I was living their and owned it that's what I would do.

[Spoook]

That, along with an externally vented fan in the bathroom and externally vented rangehood, the one I have can be modified thank goodness, and the cost of the penetrations to a recently reclad 3 storey unit, will probably set me back about 10k all up.

The house is such a warm house, the windows work for ventilation so all this is over the top. After all the recent costs for a leaky home, I now have this.
Some days, getting out of bed was the wrong thing to do.

[Thinkingbutnotdoing]

Yet another cost pushed onto the landlord. Heat pumps are only cost effective if they are run very frequently. If we assume that 5kW of heating is required 4 hours a day for four months of the year, even without using a discount rate (i.e. very conservatively), the heatpump has more than a 7 year payback relative to the cost of say an oil fin heater which you can buy for $1 on trade me (i bought several). So marginally cheaper for lounge areas, but crazy for bedrooms or studies. Especially given the best warranty available is 6 years....

Also of course the benefit is all to the tenant, and if the capital cost is added into the rent, say $3000 spread over 4 years (have to be conservative as there are maint costs also, and they don't all last 6 yrs) is an extra $15 per week in rent which makes the payback for the tenant much worse....

Yes they are convenient but i'd probably not install one in my own home.

[Perry]

And - depending what part of the country they're in - I've heard tales of cockroaches playing merry hell with the PCBs and other electronics in heatpumps, prompting expensive repairs. That's despite regular (not cheap) servicing, too.

[Spoook]

Another issue is, where on the external wall can they be fitted? (this is not a question to the forum) These are blocks of units, some with only front and back wall, most of which is window. Not much space for a unit to be fixed. ... and of course there is the issue of penetrating the new exterior cladding and the warranty we currently have. Could become null and void if not done correctly.
This will be the same for all units in the complex, this news is going to go down like a lead balloon after all the costs we have been through in the past 3 years or so.

[Thinkingbutnotdoing]

I wonder if the government (taxpayer) is going to fund the loss of warranty caused by cutting through the new cladding? yeah right.

[sidinz]

I have property in a thermal area of Rotorua. Installation costs for heatpumps here are through the roof, as the external unit has to be taken to pieces, the parts coated and it all put back together again. Apparently even after all that, it still has a shorter life span due to the corrosion.