There's a place for wind for sure, but I wouldn't call it reliable, especially when compared to geothermal or hydro. Even solar is generally more predictable and reliable.
It doesn't matter what the source of the energy if you store in batteries. This is the game changer for solar and wind that the current government seem to have (wilfully) missed
Like everything it comes down to where is the best place to spend limited money, in the end it's always going to be a combination of supply and storage. Government subsidies for household batteries would be money well spent too.
Personally I would have liked onslow to have been given more thought.
Are they? Last time I checked a while back they were more, but not that much more… what are we talking these days? Last time I needed to replace a hot water system it was ~$2k for both gas infinity and standard hot water tanks.
I got a quote for air to water heat pump to replace our infinity gas hot water system and the gas condensing boiler for the radiators, $30k👀
Admittedly mine would be more expensive because we need high temperature ones for the central heating
Essentially your standard HWC becomes your battery ( & EV car ) I did the maths recently HWC &EV all charged when sunny - with maybe my office heater during day in winter. $10k 10Kw system would eat my summer power use & 1/3 ish reduction in winter. 6 yr payback. That’s fine by me.
Not sure NZ has really adopted central heating (sadly). If you factor putting a heat pump in every room (incl bathroom and toilet) then the true comparison makes central heating a far better option (with no noise, draught or dust to consider).
Yes, that's what we did. We had an old bungalow on a south facing ridge in Auckland. Heaters were unflued. We had a Rinnai with a fan in the family area, two 30 year old gas panel heaters, and the teens had fan heaters for study. We used the fireplace every Tuesday, after swimming lessons. If I 1/
had not been at home most days to open everything the whole house would have been dripping. Sometimes, the front doormat was the warmest place, so that's where I crouched. We used our loan to get heat pump central heating, even though it meant carving up the floors. No regrets. And it's cheaper.
Pellet furnace OK. But add a UPS with a big battery so it will keep going during power cuts (3-4 days?) as they use small amounts of electricity. Installers rarely consider this aspect.
I renovated 12 years ago, back then it wasn't an option here and believe me I tried.
Turn and tilt windows seemed to baffle people🤦🏻♂️
I'd never have ducted/forced air, can't beat radiated heat.
Our power bill is tiny because we load shift and have solar/batteries. 0 fuel/maintenance on the car etc
If I was building new I would 100% add radiators, in fact I haven't ruled out retrofitting them in this house, wonderful roof space makes running the pipework a simple matter.