What does fuel poverty mean?
BY GUEST BLOGGER KATIE NIMMO
As fuel (electricity, wood, coal, and gas) prices creep up, the number of households living in fuel poverty in New Zealand will also increase and include parts of our society which have not previously struggled to pay their fuel bill.
Families with young babies, elderly people, disabled people and those with a chronic illness are particularly vulnerable because it is these groups who are most affected by the cold but least likely to afford to heat their homes to healthy temperatures. Fuel poverty is a phrase that is relatively new to most Kiwis. A household is living in fuel poverty when essential energy services such as heating, lighting, cooking and hot water are unaffordable to the resident(s).
A benchmark used in the UK to identify households living in fuel poverty is to calculate if it would cost more than 10% of the household income to heat a home to a healthy living temperature of 18-21C° (recommended by WHO) and provide other essential services. The definition focuses on how much householders need to spend to be comfortable and healthy, not how much a household is actually spending. It therefore includes households that might have relatively "low" fuel bills, but fail to heat their homes to a healthy temperature. The main factors contributing to fuel poverty are household income, fuel (energy) use, the efficiency of fuel use, the price paid for household fuels, and the energy efficiency of the building fabric of the house. New Zealand has a legacy of old, cold, poorly insulated houses, and families living in houses like these are especially at risk of living in fuel poverty.
I work for the charitable trust Community Energy Action (CEA) as a Community Outreach Coordinator. CEA has been working at the coalface of fuel poverty in Canterbury for over 15 years. Our dream is that fuel poverty is eradicated from New Zealand, and all houses achieve a "Warm Home Standard", whereby a house is capable of providing minimum healthy indoor temperatures (18-21°C) in a manner that everybody can afford. To reach that standard, a house must have very good levels of insulation and efficient, effective heating.
So why is a topic like fuel poverty relevant to a blog like Eco-Centric? It could be argued that cold homes and fuel poverty is primarily a social and health issue. But I see fuel poverty as a symptom of increasing pressure on a crucial tension between our environmental and social systems. As demand for energy increases across all sectors of energy users and energy supply becomes less certain, the price of fuel will increase. Heating a home to healthy temperatures could become less and less affordable for more people. However, we must stay warm. It is a basic human need and essential for good health. While putting on an extra layer of clothing and living with internal indoor temperatures cooler than 16°C (any lower than this will put your health at risk) might be okay for some people, it won't for most.
But we also need to delay or avoid building more very expensive large-scale power generation plants which, dependent on their type and location, could have significant environmental impacts. And we need to curb carbon emissions by minimising our reliance on coal-fired power stations like Huntly.
Solutions to the intertwined problems of fuel poverty and energy security need to be as diverse as our future energy supplies. Improving the energy efficiency of our homes is an important solution to both of these problems. What is also required is the political will to do something about it. The UK Government spends around eight times per capita more than the New Zealand Government on the problem of fuel poverty.
If you want to minimise the risk of living in fuel poverty in the coming years as fuel prices rise, one of the best things you can do is have your insulation checked. Don't take for granted that your house is properly insulated. Many people do not realise ceiling insulation aged over 15 years can settle and thin, which significantly reduces its effectiveness. Your ceiling insulation may need to be "topped up" with another layer to reinstate good levels of energy efficiency in the roof space. The Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA) provides funding to help low- and middle-income households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. This is available for both homeowners and landlords. For more information visit the EECA website.
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"As demand for energy increases across all sectors of energy users and energy supply becomes less certain, the price of fuel will increase."
That is a statement of belief generally refuted by history. The price of fuel tends to decrease with time as greater efficiencies of production and distribution are realised. However there may well be short term price spikes.
Likewise, people have different heating needs according to their lifestyle, location and health. Solutions need to be flexible and tailored, not a one-size-fits-all bureaucracy.
"New Zealand has a legacy of old, cold, poorly insulated houses",Very very true and you know what?, it's embarrassing.
Internationally our houses are quite frankly crap! Even some of the new ones are being built sub-standard and being in the "trade" i know. The reason many are being built sub-standard is the same old reason as last time. Alot of Kiwis would rather skimp on important things like double glazing so they can spend more on things like "fancy light & electric fittings, "unnecessary expensive drapes", "tile floor electric heating", which is so expensive to run that they won't actually use it after the first power bill comes in) They are going in very naive when building a new house. They go to certain VERY well known building coumpanies which i wont mention but they ARE nationwide and they actually believe the "sales pitch". We are still building to Aussie weather conditions in this country. Double glazing should be standard in NZ, Particularly if your not facing your new home to the north which people still do.
As for the poverty angle on this, if you can't afford to keep yourself warm then how can you afford to have children?
If the green nutter’s are to be believed, then we should only have to hang on for a few more years before the dreaded 'global warming' takes hold. Problem solved, jandels and tee shirts all year round, no need for smelly old fire-places and heat-pumps then; but I guess then they will all whine about how the poor cannot afford air conditioning.
Justice, double glazing is mostly a complete waste of money in Northland. Good ventilation and sensible passive solar design is far more important.
However, you are right that there is no accounting for stupidity in design and there is plenty of it around.
The assistance schemes for insulating low income homes sound nice but face substantial obstacles.
1) Low income homes are often rented. 2) If owned by the occupants, they may be very stretched and not have any spare cash to invest in subsidised insulation schemes.
A better scheme would target landlords (I am not one) of low income households and fully subsidise the GST exclusive cost of insulation, thus providing immediate benefits to those tenants. This could be done either directly or via some sort of tax rebate.
A better scheme would also target middle income house-holds. That is, people who can't quite find the spare cash to insulate their houses. A 50% subsidy with a reasonably high income threshold would interest a lot of people. As those houses age, and move into the cheap rental market, benefits would then transfer over. Additionally increasing insulation in middle income households would reduce energy demand, and therefore constrain price, which would benefit lower income households as well.
The other thing govt could do is use its purchasing power to tender for insulation supply and install. This could massively reduce the price of insulation (again increasing uptake) as well as providing a mechanism to ensure anyone claiming a subsidy was actually installing insulation.
Extending benefits to wealthier homes (and heaven forbid landlords) admittedly flies in the face of how these things normally work. But I say if the benefits pan out then the heck with ideology.
I agree with justice # 3 a large % of NZ homes are not built for the climate , hot in summer & cold & damp in winter , certainly the cause of many health problems especialy for the very young & aged . I am an expat now but i lived in a very nice home in NZ . But come winter time it was a big struggle to keep the wind & cold out drafts sneeked in everywhere . If you locked it up and went away for a couple of weeks in winter time it was very damp & mildewy on return . Yet this house is at the top end of the market very appealing . NZ houses are way over priced & should be graded on how they handle the climate . As for the fuel prices the govt needs to take control over all fuels gas , electricity , & petrol & disel . Its a sick joke at present . The fuel prices in NZ are totally unjustified . Will be interesting to see if the present govt does anything about it . I think not but i hope so .
Comming from the Northern Hemisphere there are two things that concerned me about New Zealand Housing: 1. The poor quality of housing - even at the higher cost end. No insulation, no double glazing, insistance on looks over function. 2. Reliance on power to maintain house environment rather than passive fixes. The use of power to heat, cool and maintaina 'dry' atmosphere. Power, its comsumption, generation and use is one of the biggest issues facing all of us; our long term approach not only affects our short term health and wealth, but more inportantly the global environment long term. NZ needs to do more at home to support the 100% green marketing image used to market the country abroad - now is the time for the government to put more substance behind it. More funding for passive house solutions and tighter guidelines on build specification.
Without some action fuel poverty will becoma a reality for more than just poor New Zealanders.
Justice #3 hit the nail on the head with 'As for the poverty angle on this, if you can't afford to keep yourself warm then how can you afford to have children?' How true. People breeding willy nilly with no thought to anything but self gratification and ego. Every new human is a new consumer of the planet. Less humans= less energy demand=less environmental destruction. If we cannot reduce human numbers, insulation in homes or anywhere, electric cars and recycling etc will not matter a damn as consumption rises with human population increase.
Justice #3 & Arthur #9: 'As for the poverty angle on this, if you can't afford to keep yourself warm then how can you afford to have children?'
Clearly they are not wanting to have children but rather trying to keep themselves warm - a rather smart and pleasant way to keep warm I say!!
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What you fail to address is that many of the families who are close to the poverty line and can't afford to meet their heating costs to a healthy level - are also in no position to top up their ceiling or any other insulation - or install efficient heating.
Unless the EECA is able to meet 100% of the cost for low income families it's not going to work. And very few landlords are either willing or able to spend the money on improving the insulation in the houses they have for rent (and why would they when some tenants trash houses?)