Toby Fox reckons his Castle St flat is as cold as a snowman’s backside at this time of year. The 20-year-old University of Otago law and economics student said his Castle St flat was “pretty abysmal”, and most mornings, he wakes up in what he calls his “own personal fridge-freezer”. “You wake up every morning and there’s condensation on the windows, you can feel a draft coming through the doors, and sometimes on really cold mornings there’s a bit of frost on the inside of the windows. “This is my life inside the freezer. That’s how it feels. It’s colder inside than outside.” ©Allied MediaUniversity of Otago law and economics student Toby Fox says he is snug as a bug in his newly insulated student flat. Photo: Peter McIntosh He said it was too expensive to run their heat pump 24/7, so they dressed appropriately for life at the South Pole. “If it’s a cold morning, you’ll put on your thermals and then you’ll put on a shirt and then you’ll put on a hoodie and then your puffer jacket — that’s pretty typical for a cold morning in Dunedin. “And that’s like most flats along here.” Fortunately, his flatmate’s mother works for Aero New Zealand — a company introducing new insulation technology for healthier homes — and yesterday, Toby’s flat became one of the first in the country to have the new technology installed. Aero New Zealand operations manager Mary-Lou Duder said it was called “air sealing”, which involved pressurising the flat using big fans. “Once the house is pressurised, we use a liquid sealant which gets dispersed through some stations that are set up within the house. “The sealant gets aerosolised and pushed around the house … and because the air is being pushed out, it follows that airflow to find the cracks or the gaps, and it starts to fill them in. “It’s like a spider web and it just keeps filling it until that gap has now ceased to exist. No more drafts.” She said it could fill cracks as fine as a human hair, or as thick as 15mm. “So, in a house which is 145 years old, you can imagine there’s a lot of existing cracks in there.” ©Allied MediaAero New Zealand equipment works to seal cracks and gaps in a Castle St flat, in Dunedin, yesterday. Photo: Peter McIntosh Mrs Duder said the product was used widely in the United States because the US building code required housing to meet a certain level of airtightness. Testing on the Castle St flat found it was so draughty, it had 16 air changes per hour (ach). A newly-built house in New Zealand usually measured 5ach to 8ach, depending on the workmanship. Once the flat had been treated, it too was reduced to the level of a newly-built house. “That means that when you heat the home, the heated air stays within the house — it’s not leaking out through all the cracks and gaps. “We’re just trying to be able to make them perform in a way that the tenants are healthy, first and foremost, and comfortable. It’s a basic right.” A couple of hours later, with the work was completed, Toby said the difference was like night and day. “It’s a game changer. It’s completely different. “You walk inside and you can’t see your breath for the first time in months, and it’s just lovely,” he said. john.lewis@odt.co.nz
