Energy efficiency in homes

Save money on your power and gas bills. For long-term fixes, make your home healthier and efficient with energy.

Healthy homes use less energy

If your home is designed well, it makes good, efficient use of the energy you put into your home.

Check how healthy and efficient your home is

A healthy home check helps you find out which areas to improve in your home.

Do a healthy home check

Homeowners — living in your own home

There are no requirements for energy efficiency if you own and live in your home — often called being an ‘owner-occupier’.

If you want to improve your home, use the links on this page to help you.

Landlords — owners of rental properties

You need to meet the minimum requirements for healthy homes.

Rental properties and healthy homes standards

What needs to work to have a healthy home

  • Heating and cooling — check your energy provider and appliances.
  • Insulation — slow the outside temperature from getting into your home.
  • Less moisture in the air and no leaks into the home — less mould, fewer dust mites and you can control the temperature easier.
  • Ventilation — move the air around in controlled and healthy ways.
  • Stop draughts — uncontrolled air movement that leads to cold and damp homes.

Improve energy efficiency — Gen Less | Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority

Poorly designed homes — what happens

Your home wastes the energy you put into it — this causes you to either:

  • live in worse conditions — mainly a damp and cold home
  • spend more money on your home’s running costs — trying to make up for the wasted energy
  • or both.

Homes: here’s why dampness and mould are bad for your health — Healthify

Examples — benefits of making your home efficient with energy

If you make some energy-efficient changes, you can:

  • lower the costs to run your home
  • keep comfortable year-round temperatures — both heating and cooling
  • live with healthier air quality that’s easier to control the temperature of
  • create safer conditions for the people living in your home
  • use less energy, which is good for the environment.

Do a healthy home check

  • Free online check: assess how warm, safe and dry your home is.
  • Find out what you can do to improve your home’s energy efficiency.

HomeFit online check — New Zealand Green Building Council

After your online check — more resources from HomeFit

Once you know the problems, think about how much you can afford to spend on fixes and repairs.

Change what makes sense for you and your home

In-home assessments — free and paid options

Check providers of in-home assessments for energy efficiency and healthy living conditions.

Do a healthy home check — Gen Less | Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority

Check your appliances and energy providers

These are some of the easiest ways to keep your energy costs down.

Check your appliances for energy efficiency

Check the Gen Less | Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) website — it explains how to:

Learn about Energy Rating Labels

Calculate the energy savings from switching your home appliances

Find out how much you could save on running costs by switching to energy-efficient appliances.

Use the calculators from Gen Less | EECA so you know the:

Electricity and gas — compare the costs of energy providers’ plans

Each year, double-check if you could save by switching power or gas plans.

Powerswitch: compare and change plans — Consumer NZ

Adjust some living habits and make small changes to your home

You can also get quick results by changing some living habits and parts of your home.

Winter and summer advice for controlling your home’s temperature

Long-term energy efficiency in your home

The goal with long-term design is to make sure all of your home’s systems are working together — instead of treating them as separate, optional areas to improve.

With better designs, people can have both:

  • healthier living conditions
  • cheaper running costs for the home.

Renovation and build guides — get it right from start to finish

Use Consumer NZ’s steps to help you think about the details and plan well.

Home renovation guide — Consumer NZ

Build a new home

Check these guides to learn important details before spending a lot of money or signing contracts.

Read about very healthy and efficient homes to see if they’re right for your goals and budget.

Very healthy and efficient homes

Details about what needs to work for energy efficiency in your home

With the right designer, you can make sure the energy going into your home is being efficiently used.

Think about what’s important to you in your home.

This way, you can talk with the designer — they can, within reason, help you get exactly or close to the results you want while spending what you can afford.

Designers can make sure the following systems perform together to achieve your goals for your home. Ask them if there are other areas to improve that work for your situation.

Heating and cooling

Insulation

Ventilation

Humidity and moisture

Draught stopping

Plan for natural hazards in your designs

This is also a good time to check if you can improve how your home defends against natural hazards.

Check the Natural Hazards Commission website to learn how to:

Businesses and energy efficiency

Check the Gen Less | EECA website for:

Help with the costs of energy-efficient options

There are loans for energy-efficient improvements to your home — often called ‘green loans’.

Check if you’re eligible and which terms and rates you can get.

Green loans for your home — Gen Less | EECA

Help paying for insulation and certain types of heating

Double-check if you can get help paying for:

Very healthy and efficient homes

To take full advantage of well-designed homes, Gen Less | Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority has information on how to:

Resources from other organisations — highly efficient homes

Who to contact for more help

If you need more help or have questions about the information or services on this page, contact the following agency.

Utility links and page information

Was this page helpful?
Thanks, do you want to tell us more?

Do not enter personal information. All fields are optional.

Last updated