Sustainable Home Guidelines

About the guidelines	Water
Sustainable Design	Materials

Energy

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Introduction (Size 7K)
An average all-electric New Zealand home uses around 10,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Typically this will cost a thousand dollars in energy charges. There is plenty of scope for saving on this cost.

Design for the sun (Size 135K)
Designing for the sun is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to heat New Zealand houses. "Passive solar design" refers to the use of the sun's energy directly for the heating and cooling of living spaces.

Insulation (Size 299K)
Insulating your home will save energy and provide a healthier and more comfortable indoor environment. The heat captured from the sun or generated by your heater needs to be stopped from escaping through walls, ceilings and floors.

Heating your home (Size 132K)
Home heating undoubtedly offers the greatest potential for energy saving in the home. The way most of us use electricity to heat our homes is wasteful. Moreover home heating causes the highest peaks in electricity demand.

Heating water (Size 201K)
Water heating probably accounts for 45 % of your annual household energy use. Most of us have electric storage hot water systems, which are often inefficient and wasteful. Poorly insulated cylinders, long pipe runs without lagging, and inadequate appliances and fittings all waste energy.

Household appliances (Size 79K)
Some of the big users of energy are covered in the separate chapters on Heating Water and Heating your Home. As a rule-of-thumb you can assume that mechanical and electronic appliances use electricity efficiently, but anything that produces heat is likely to be quite wasteful.

Light & lighting (Size 70K)
Besides being essential for vision, light affects human performance, alertness and mood. It influences body rhythms such as sleep patterns, ovulation and hormone secretion.