Heat comes off ECan

The Government's $323 million insulation scheme has proved a boon for Environment Canterbury's (ECan) Clean Heat programme.

The 10-year Clean Heat programme, which subsidises conversions to a heat pump, pellet fire or approved logburner, had its budget slashed by $7m in ECan cost-cutting.

Full subsidies for community services card-holders were to be dropped and only homeowners with logburners who were eligible for Christchurch City Council rates rebates would have received the subsidy.

Now, under the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart scheme, community services card-holders would get close to full assistance 60 per cent towards the cost of insulation and $1200 towards a heating appliance, ECan operations director Ken Lawn said.

"It's quite a change from what was proposed (by ECan)."

Full assistance could now be offered beyond Christchurch, in Timaru, Ashburton, Kaiapoi and Rangiora.

"We're taking advantage of the central government money and offering the best deals we can."

The national scheme kicks off this week.

Landlords who have tenants with community services cards can get a 60 per cent subsidy on insulation and $500 towards a heating appliance, while anyone else will get a 33 per cent subsidy and $500 towards a heating appliance.

People have to be living in houses built before 2000.

City Missioner Michael Gorman said he would love landlords to take up the offer because many people rented cold, damp, sub-standard housing. "This would be a wonderful opportunity for responsible landlords," he said.

There has been huge interest in the Government programme, which hopes to better insulate and heat more than 180,000 Kiwi homes over four years.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) says there have been nearly 112,000 unique visitors to both the Energywise and EECA websites since the scheme was announced in the Budget, up from 45,000 on the previous month.

The Energywise call centre and EECA reception took 10,500 calls in the same period more than double the previous month.

The Christchurch-based Community Energy Action charitable trust has a six-week backlog of assessments.

Meanwhile, recent cold, calm weather has increased smog levels as people stoke up their fires to stay warm.

Last week, ECan recorded high pollution days in Christchurch, Timaru, Ashburton, Waimate, Geraldine and Kaiapoi.

- © Fairfax NZ News