Keeping your home warm and dry
Simple activities like cooking, showering and hanging your washing inside can cause this build up of unhealthy moisture. The good news is that it’s easy to get rid of.
Here are four ways to keep your home warm and dry
What can you do?
Moisture build-up
Eight litres of moisture builds up in Kiwi homes each day. For a dry and healthy home follow these three 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 few 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 it cosy.
- Stop cold air getting into your home by sealing 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 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 money, and the environment.
Remember to take a sensible approach to power saving, and don’t let yourself get so cold in winter.
Our Programmes
Kāinga Ora has programmes to help our tenants find out how to keep homes 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 tenants and make our homes more sustainable. The trials aim to understand how Kāinga Ora tenants can benefit from solar panels, and how we could provide the benefits of renewable energy to more tenants in the future.
If your home has solar panels, find out more information.
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
It’s important that your home feels warm, dry, healthy and safe at all times, so you and your whānau can live well. We manage this through routine maintenance, and by making sure your home meets Healthy Homes Standards.
Healthy Homes Standards(external link) were introduced by the Government in 2019 to help improve the quality of all tenanted rental homes in New Zealand. Homes owned and managed by Kāinga Ora had to meet minimum standards for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress (dampness) and drainage, and draught stopping by 1 July 2024.
To ensure your home remains compliant with the Standards, checks will be included in annual property inspections. You can also help by letting us know if any maintenance work is needed throughout the year.
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.
We get 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 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 and installing new or additional heating sources.
Right at Home was previously known as the Rheumatic Fever Prevention Programme.
Page updated: 1 July 2024