Praise for ECan’s Clean Heat Project
< Praise for ECan’s Clean
Heat Project Continued improvements
to the project over the past three years have paid off, with
97 per cent of people surveyed ‘very’ or ‘quite’
satisfied with the Clean Heat process, 82 per cent claiming
that their new heating arrangements were better than their
old ones and 79 per cent stating that their house was warmer
than before. “These are outstanding results,” says Sir
Kerry. The Clean Heat Project offers financial assistance to
Christchurch homeowners and landlords to encourage them to
change to cleaner forms of heating. The survey was
conducted by Opinions Market Research with 309 Christchurch
Clean Heat Project householders. Since 2003, when it first
started subsidising insulation and clean heating, the
project has provided more than 13,000 heating assessments
and more than 7,000 conversions. “It has been running
since 2003 and we’re obviously on the right track with the
improvements we’ve made. The project has been
exceptionally well received, but there are still areas where
we can do better and we will use the information gathered in
this survey, to lift our game even further,” says Sir
Kerry. Cr Richard Budd, chairman of Environment
Canterbury’s air quality portfolio, says he’s extremely
excited to see that the Clean Heat Project is now getting
good traction. “One of the benefits of chasing clean air
is to raise the temperature of our homes, which offers
significant health benefits,” he says.
Although 29
percent of the people surveyed said their new system was
costing more than before, more than half said the cost had
not changed (21 percent) or had decreased (32
percent). Satisfaction with the registration process, the
energy assessors’ knowledge and attitude and the
performance of the contractors involved in the process, were
also rated high - above 80 percent. By far the majority (59
percent) of people who replaced their heating appliances
under the Clean Heat Project opted for heatpumps. Twenty-two
percent preferred pellet fires, 16 percent chose solid fuel
appliances and two percent chose gas appliances. Cr Budd
says now is a good time to register for the Clean Heat
Project and book an appointment with an assessor. “Don’t
wait until winter when it can take much longer to get the
process going,” he
advises. Ends
Environment Canterbury chairman, Sir
Kerry Burke, has welcomed results of an independent survey
into satisfaction levels amongst people who have benefited
from ECan’s Clean Heat Project.