Keeping your home warm and dry :: Kāinga Ora

Here are four ways to keep your home warm and dry

What can you do?

Moisture build-up

8 litres of moisture builds up in Kiwi homes each day. For a dry and healthy home this winter follow these 3 easy steps:

Wipe any moisture or drips off your windows and walls.
Open windows in the mornings, while you shower/bath, or while cooking.
Hang washing outside to dry, if you can. Or in a room with a door closed and windows open.

A dry home is easier to heat

There are a number of things you can do to help make it easier and cheaper to heat your home:

Open curtains during the day to let warmth in and close them just before dark to keep the warmth in.
Stop cold air getting into your home by stopping draughts around doors and windows.
Heat your home using thermostats and timers so your heaters only come on when you need them.

Kitchen

When you're cooking:

keep lids on pots, and make sure the pot fits the element and the lid fits the pot.
use your rangehood or open the window.

Bedroom

Keep beds and furniture away from walls, leaving a gap so air can circulate freely.
Trapped air can cause condensation to form between the two, and mould will be in among your shoes and clothes before you know it.
Keep wardrobe doors slightly open.
Avoid putting mattresses directly on the floor.

Prevent the spread of germs

Create as much space as possible between the heads of sleeping children.
Try ‘topping and tailing’ if your children share a bed.
Try not to have lots of people sleeping together in one room.

Keeping Power Costs Down

Keeping the power bill under control is always a challenge, but it is especially difficult in winter. Here are some easy ways to cut down on power, helping you save cash, and the environment.

Remember to take a sensible approach to power saving, and don’t let yourself get so cold in winter that your health is affected.

Keeping your power costs down factsheet [PDF, 54 KB]

Our Programmes

Kāinga Ora has several programmes to help ensure our tenants are well informed about how they can maintain their homes to keep them warm, well-ventilated and as dry as possible

Renewable Energy Programme

Kāinga Ora is installing solar panels on selected homes across the country, to help reduce energy costs for our customers and increase the sustainability of our homes. The trials aim to understand how Kāinga Ora customers can benefit from solar panels, and how we could provide the benefits of renewable energy to more customers in the future.

If your home has solar panels, here’s how you can get the most benefit from them.

Kāinga Ora Retrofit Programme

Kāinga Ora is making our homes warmer, drier and healthier to help improve the wellbeing of our tenants. Through our Retrofit Programme, we’re upgrading and improving some of our older homes to help provide our tenants great places to call home.

Healthy Homes Programme

The Government has introduced new minimum healthy homes standards for all rental homes including our Kāinga Ora homes, to make them warmer and drier and healthier for family / whanau.

The new standards are for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture / drainage and draught stopping.

Find out more in the Healthy Homes Programme factsheet [PDF, 705 KB] or watch our video on what to expect next.

Changes to compliance timeframes

The Government has extended the Healthy Homes Standards compliance timeframes for private landlords, Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, and Community Housing Providers, through the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Amendment Bill 2022.

Effective 26 November 2022, the compliance timeframe for Kāinga Ora and Community Housing Providers shifted from 1 July 2023 to a new date of 1 July 2024.

For more information, visit www.hud.govt.nz/our-work/healthy-homes-standards/(external link)

Right at Home Programme

Living in a warm, dry and healthy home can help reduce the risk of preventable health conditions and respiratory issues.

Our Right at Home Programme focuses on reducing the risk of housing-related illness for vulnerable people and whānau in our homes.

Through referrals to the Right at Home Programme from Te Whatu Ora / Health New Zealand-funded services known as the Healthy Homes Initiatives, we prioritise maintenance work and improvements to our homes, including updates to meet the government’s Healthy Homes Standards.

Improvements can include installing mechanical ventilation in the kitchen or bathroom; fitting or replacing carpets, drapes and insulation; or installing new or additional heating sources.

Right at Home was previously known as the Rheumatic Fever Prevention Programme.