A telephone survey of domestic heating methods and fuels for Gore was carried out by Digipoll in October 2004. This involved surveying 150 households within the 2001 census area unit (CAU) areas of North Gore, East Gore, Central Gore, West Gore and South Gore. Survey details are shown in Table 4.1. The number of households for 2004 was estimated based on 2001 census data for occupied dwellings, extrapolated for 2004 based on Statistics New Zealand population projections. [New Zealand Statistics 2004, www.stats.govt.nz] The latter suggest a population decrease for Gore of 19% by 2021. [High, medium and low population projections were estimated by Statistics New Zealand. The value used is the medium population projection.]
Table 4.1: Summary survey data, Gore
4.1 Home heating methods and fuels
The Digipoll survey was used to collect information on home heating methods and fuels for Gore. These data were collected for the purpose of evaluating the impact of variations in heating methods on air quality in Gore, in particular the extent of change required to achieve the NES for PM10. This section presents the results of the home heating survey for Gore largely in tabular form, in the expectation that these results will be of value in other assessments (eg, emission inventory studies).
Tables 4.2 and 4.3 show domestic heating methods and fuels used for the main living areas in houses in Gore houses, and seasonal variations in heating behaviour. The main methods of heating were multi-fuel burners (48% of households) and electricity (50%). Many households used more than one method of heating in their main living area.
The big area of difference in home heating methods for Gore is the high use of multi-fuel burners (48% compared to a national average of around 8%). This is compensated to some degree by a lower use of wood burners (20% compared with a national average of around 38%) and is likely to relate to the accessibility of coal in the Southland region.
Table 4.2: Domestic home heating methods and fuels, Gore
Of the households using wood burners, multi-fuel burners and gas over 10% burn all year round (Table 4.3). During January these households heat their homes an average of four days per week for households using gas, five days per week for households using wood and multi-fuel burners, and seven days per week for households using oil. However, the quantities of fuel used per day are typically much less during the summer months than during winter (Table 4.4).
Table 4.3: Monthly variations in heating behaviour and fuel use, Gore
Table 4.4: Estimated daily fuel use, by season, Gore
4.2 Insulation, cost of heating, income, and house age and size
In addition to collecting data for the purpose of evaluating the impact of variations in heating methods on air quality, information was collected on a number of variables relevant to the Ministry for the Environment's Warm Homes Project. Relevant data for Gore are presented in this section.
Figure 4.1 shows that around 32% of households using gas heating in Gore have flued gas systems. This compares with around 28% on average across New Zealand.
The amount spent on heating for a winter month, by heating method, is shown in Table 4.5. In Gore, households using open fires and multi-fuel burners spend less per month on average ($40) than those using other heating methods. This is less than the national average for these methods ($60) and may relate to the availability of local coal and a greater proportion of households obtaining wood free of charge.
Figure 4.2 shows the average heating costs, home ownership, age of dwelling and number of bedrooms for households in Gore. Unlike the results for New Zealand as a whole, open fires are not common in new houses in Gore. One-bedroom houses are typically heated using electricity, and open fires are relatively uncommon when compared to other locations. Pellet burners were only used in owner-occupied dwellings, with around 3% of houses using this method.
Figure 4.1: Distribution of flued versus unflued gas heating and age of wood burner, Gore
Text description of figure
There are two pie graphs. The first graph shows the distribution of flued and unflued gas heaters. Unflued gas makes up 68% of all gas heating and Flued gas makes up 32%.
The second graph is divided by the age of wood burners. Post-1999 wood burners make up 31%, 1994-99 wood burners make up 24% and the remaining 45% of wood burner are Pre-1994.
Table 4.5: Average monthly heating costs (winter), Gore
Figure 4.2: Domestic heating method, by average monthly heating expenditure, house ownership, house age and number of bedrooms, Gore
Average heating cost per month (winter)
House ownership
Age of dwelling
Number of bedrooms
Text description of figure
There are four bar graphs.
The first graph sets out the average heating cost per month in winter. Cost per month by heating methods are: electric $77, gas $68, open fire, $40, wood burner $60, pellet burner $98, Multi-fuel $40 and oil $170.
The second graph sets out heating methods divided by home tenure. For households living in rentals 329 use electric, 62 use gas, 21 use open fire, 123 use wood burners, 0 use pellet burners, 267 use multi-fuel and 21 use oil. For households living in their own house 1,212 use electricity, 431 use gas, 123 use open fires, 493 use wood burners, 82 use pellet burners, 1,212 use multi-fuel and 185 use oil.
The third graph sets out the age of a dwelling using a particular method of heating.
- Heating methods for houses under 10 years old are 12% electric, 8% gas, 3% wood burners, 7% multi fuel and 0% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses between 11 and 20 years old are 12% electric, 4% gas, 23% wood burners, 11% multi fuel and 0% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses between 21 and 40 years old are 33% electric, 63% gas, 20% wood burners, 36% multi fuel and 43% open fires.
- Heating methods for houses over 41years old are 39% electric, 21% gas, 47% wood burners, 42% multi fuel and 57% open fires.
The fourth graph sets out particular heating methods by the number of bedrooms.
- Heating methods for houses with one bedroom are 4% electricity, 0% gas, 0% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with two bedrooms are 15% electricity, 8% gas, 10% wood burner, 6% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with three bedrooms are 68% electricity, 58% gas, 70% wood burner, 72% multi fuel and 86% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with four bedrooms are 11% electricity, 29% gas, 17% wood burner, 19% multi fuel and 14% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with five bedrooms are 0% electricity, 0% gas, 0% wood burner, 1% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
- Heating methods for houses with six bedrooms are 1% electricity, 0% gas, 3% wood burner, 0% multi fuel and 0% open fire.
Table 4.6: Type of electric heating, Gore
The types of electric heaters used in the main living areas of houses in Gore were similar to the average results for New Zealand. The main exception was the greater use of night-store and lesser use of radiant heaters in Gore (Table 4.6). The use of heat pumps was the same at around 13% of houses using electricity to heat their main living area.
Table 4.7 shows that around 19% of respondents were living in rental accommodation.
Table 4.7: Home heating method, by house ownership, Gore
The types of insulation used in houses relative to the household heating method is shown in Tables 4.8 and 4.9. Table 4.10 shows heating method by household income. Although the overall non-response rate was around 15%, all of the households with open fires provided income information. Results are consistent with the national results in that a reasonable proportion of households with open fires have an income of greater than $50,000 per year.
Table 4.8: House insulation summary statistics, Gore
Table 4.9: Degree of house insulation, by heating method, Gore
Table 4.10: Home heating method, by household income, Gore
Tables 4.11 and 4.12 show the relationship between heating methods and the age of the dwelling and number of bedrooms, respectively.
Table 4.11: Home heating method, by age of dwelling, Gore
Table 4.12: Home heating method, by number of bedrooms, Gore
4 Gore
November 2005
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