Energywise Homes Package

House insulation in New Zealand became mandatory in 1978 and the majority of houses built prior to 1978 were not insulated. The number of houses with inadequate or no insulation is estimated at 900,000 (64% of total housing stock) and of these approximately 300,000 are occupied by low-incomes families. To address this issue, since 1995 government agencies including the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Health have implemented retrofit programmes to install insulation in inadequately insulated homes. In 2006, the EECA introduced a rental offer to landlords in which landlords had to be a member of the New Zealand Property Investors Federation. The subsequent 2007 scheme was opened to all applicants, providing tenants are eligible for a community services card and the property was built before 1978. The Energywise Home Grants were made available for low income households to insulate their houses- including ceiling and under-floor insulation, draught proofing of doors and windows, hot water cylinder wraps and low flow shower heads. The Energywise Interest Subsidy was available for middle-income homeowners for an insulation retrofit and or a clean heat heating upgrade to their property. Since its establishment in 2005, Energywise Homes completed over 54,000 home insulation retrofits. EECA managed funding for programmes under the Energywise Homes Programme to assist lower-income and middle-income families to insulate their homes and to install clean efficient heating appliances. In addition to EECAs managed programmes, the Ministry for the Environment funded the Clean Heat Programme, which was available to low income households in areas with local air quality constraints and involves removing inefficient heaters and replacing them with clean, efficient and sufficiently sized heating appliances. This programme was superseded by the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart programme.

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