[Glenda]

I don't know anyone with central heating around here ... but then we are in the milder Far North.

Our rental was so cold that we wanted to make sure the new house was warm. Heat pumps seemed to be the national favourite and I thought two or three around the house would work. After a discussion with the very honest heating engineer, I rather reluctantly opted for one heat pump, a woodburning stove (for emergencies mostly) and a heat transfer sytem to the kids bedrooms.

Maybe we have had a lot of mild weather since moving in the new house, but we have hardly needed to use any heating and I am well pleased the Kiwis now use insulation in their new houses(!).

The heat pump, after several minutes of warming up, really does give out a lot of heat. The one pump is sufficient to heat the dining room, kitchen and living room of our house within an hour or so. The heat transference system sucks up some of the heat pump's heat from a nearby vent and sends it to the kids bedrooms - it works but is not instant heat and the bedrooms can get colder before they get warmer as the cold air in the ducts has to come out before the warmer air is sucked in. A good thing with the heat pump is that it can have a timer so it can come on just before getting up; it can also be used as air conditioning.

I still cannot believe how warmer it is living in a well-insulated new house to that of our rental which was only built in 1994. Building standards seem to have improved a lot.

I think that if I lived as far south as Dunedin I would certainly have two or three inside the house (probably at a cost of around $12-$15,000). The woodburning stove is a must, even if just for bad weather power cuts (they start at around $1,200), most existing NZ houses have them. Don't know about underfloor or any other heating here. Other than that it is as Deb says - socks, the extra blankets, extra-warm clothing and hot water bottles.