Posts by Che Tibby
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Hard News: Is that it?, in reply to BenWilson,
From a societal point of view, it's just a bad sign.
god i couldn't disagree more. kids can go get education or sponge off their parents. who here hasn't done that? but more older people working means less welfare dependency among that demographic.
if people can still work, they damn well should. the old guys and gals in the local hardware supply places are freaking GOLD. replace them with kids and it would be a nightmare.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to David Haywood,
yup. read your sterling work.
but have you bubble-wrapped your walls and shrink-wrapped your windows yet?
you can pretend you're john travolta.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to BenWilson,
I’d save a lot of money and time and get land back if I could burn off a proportion of the organic waste that grows here.
i'm drying off a bunch of wood from around the yard as we speak. even collecting it from other people.
and pellet fires, yup. power cuts are the problem. we're up pretty high, so power cuts in winter storms are not infrequent.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to Hilary Stace,
and, they need electricity to run. we pretty much discounted them immediately once we saw that.
anyone advised dr haywood to shrink-wrap his windows yet? cheap "double-glazing".
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to Russell Brown,
Wellington is plainly messed up. But even there, people are are live-tweeting their ascents to the hill suburbs.
seriously. getting home was looking like being a mission. made it, no dramas, no children having to be eaten. tomorrow am taking the ubiquitous "socks over shoes" advice.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
we looked into a boiler system for the current place (we had to replace the gas-fired central heating. waaaaay too expensive).
installed boiler units run to about $20k...
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to Isabel Hitchings,
for that i can only offer sympathy. :(
other new zealand people. please don't put in woodburners. i don't want the price of fuel to go up too much.
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this is the thing. we didn't opt for the automated version, and have a lot less trouble with power bills.
if it's too hot we switch off the system, and if it's too cold, same.
but, if it's cold, sunny, and there's no-one at home for the day, thing runs for 8 hours.
i guess it's horses for courses.
hopefully this thread hijack has been useful to people thinking how to improve their living conditions. let's just say our last power bill was <$200 for 110m2. we put aside money each month to go into the firewood account and purchase in bulk in late spring (also snooping up cheap/free wood whenever possible).
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to BenWilson,
buy a cheap greenhouse thermometer. run the cord up to the "outdoors" (ceiling), and you can monitor when it's too cool to vent into the house.
works a treat for us.
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Hard News: When the Weather is the News, in reply to RJW,
only if you have direct sunlight to the roof, for a reasonable number of hours.
we got a 2nd hand Moisturemaster and had it installed. the house is now dry, and cracks starting to appear between the scotia and the gib. #whitewhine
we didn't go for the HRV because the salesman was a complete arsehole, it's more expensive, and consumes a lot of power doing the dehumidifying - something pointless for us (we're in cloud 3-4 days a month on average).
that said, positive pressure systems are freaking awesome.