Auckland Wide
Monday - Friday: 8.00am - 5.00pm
Auckland Wide
A heat pump is the cheapest way to heat a home in New Zealand, full stop. And yet every winter people open a power bill that makes them wince and quietly blame the heat pump. Almost always, the unit is not the problem. It is how it is being used. The same heat pump can be genuinely cheap or surprisingly expensive to run depending on a handful of habits, and the good ones are easy. Here is how to run yours all winter without the bill-shock.
It helps to know why a heat pump is so efficient, because it explains how to keep it that way. Unlike a plug-in heater that turns electricity straight into heat, a heat pump moves existing heat from the outside air into your home, which lets it deliver roughly three to four units of heat for every unit of power it uses. That is why it is the cheapest heat in the house. Every tip below is really about protecting that advantage rather than throwing it away.
The biggest lever is the setpoint. Run living areas around 18 to 21 degrees, not the high twenties, and put the unit on auto mode so it holds that temperature efficiently. Cranking it higher does not heat faster, it just runs longer and costs more. A steady, sensible temperature on auto beats blasting it hot and switching it off, because every restart to a cold room forces another expensive full-power burst.
A single wall unit heats the room it is in, not the house. Trying to warm the whole home through one open-plan doorway just bleeds heat into hallways and rooms nobody is in. Close internal doors to keep the warmth in the room you are actually using, and only run the units in the spaces you occupy. Heating empty bedrooms all evening is money straight out the window.
You rarely need the heat pump running while the house is empty. Use the timer to have it warm the living room just before you get home, or the bedroom before you wake, so you are paying for heat only when you are there to feel it. A short, well-timed run beats leaving it going all day to an empty house.
This is the cheapest, most overlooked saving there is. The filters clog with dust over winter, and a blocked filter chokes the airflow, so the unit works harder and uses more power to push out less heat. Slide the filters out and clean them roughly once a month during heavy use and you will feel the difference in both warmth and running cost. Our guide to heat pump maintenance and cleaning walks through exactly how, and it takes five minutes.
Beyond the filters you can clean yourself, a proper service keeps the whole system running at its best, clears the parts you cannot reach, and catches small issues before they become a struggling, power-hungry unit or an expensive breakdown. A well-serviced heat pump runs more efficiently and lasts longer, and our guide to heat pump servicing and its costs explains what is involved and how often to do it.
Your heat pump cannot win against a house that leaks warmth as fast as it makes it. Close the curtains at dusk to keep heat from pouring out the windows, block obvious draughts under doors, and keep the doors to heated rooms shut. These cost little or nothing and they let the heat pump hold temperature on far less power, because it is topping up a warm room rather than fighting a cold, draughty one.
Warm air rises, so aim the louvres downward to push heat down into the living space instead of letting it gather at the ceiling. Leave the fan on auto so the unit can move enough air to actually warm the room. Small settings, but they make the room feel warmer at the same setpoint, which means you can keep that setpoint low.
If your bill is higher than it should be, it is usually one of these. Cranking the setpoint into the high twenties. Running a filthy, clogged filter. Trying to heat the whole house, or empty rooms, off one unit. Leaving it going all day to an empty home. And leaving doors, curtains and draughts working against you. Fix those and a correctly sized heat pump becomes the cheap, easy heat it is meant to be. You can see just how cheap in our breakdown of heat pump running costs.
It is worth remembering that a heat pump gets more efficient the milder it is outside, because it has more warmth in the air to draw on. That is good news here, since Auckland winters are gentle and rarely drop near freezing for long. In a genuinely cold climate a heat pump has to work harder on the coldest nights, but in Auckland it spends most of the winter operating in its efficient sweet spot. So the fear that a heat pump will hammer your bill is usually overblown for our conditions. Run it sensibly and our mild winter does a lot of the saving for you, which is part of why heat pumps are the standard heating choice across the region.
Habits do most of the work, but the hardware sets the ceiling. An undersized unit runs flat out and never quite copes, and an older, low-efficiency model costs more to run than a modern high-star inverter no matter how carefully you use it. If yours is aged or was never quite right for the room, upgrading to an efficient model can pay for itself over its life. Our comparison of the best heat pump brands in NZ is a good place to see what efficient looks like.
A heat pump rewards a little good habit. Set it sensibly, keep it clean, heat only what you use, and stop the warmth leaking away, and the bill that made you wince turns into the cheapest heating you have had.
Varcoe has helped Auckland homes stay warm and efficient since 1975. If your heat pump is costing more than it should, we can service it, check it is the right size, or advise on a more efficient unit. Get in touch for a free assessment, call us on 0800 088 888, or email info@varcoe.co.nz, and we will help you get the most warmth for the least power this winter.
Set it around 18 to 21 degrees on auto, heat only the rooms you use with the doors closed, use the timer instead of running it all day, keep the filters clean, and stop draughts and heat loss. Those habits protect the efficiency that makes a heat pump cheap.
Usually no. Running it to an empty house wastes power. Use the timer so it warms the room just before you need it, and hold a steady sensible temperature while you are there rather than switching it off and on.
Yes. A single unit heats the room it is in, so closing internal doors keeps the warmth contained and lets the unit hold temperature on less power instead of bleeding heat into unused spaces.
About once a month during heavy winter use. A clogged filter chokes airflow and makes the unit work harder for less heat, so regular cleaning is one of the easiest ways to keep running costs down.
Keep the setpoint in the low twenties on auto, heat only occupied rooms, use the timer, clean the filters, service it, and stop heat escaping through windows, doors and draughts. Done together, these keep a heat pump the cheapest heat in the house.
We can service it, check it is the right size, or advise on a more efficient unit.
