In every British home there is a true marvel that people who were born and raised here do not appreciate. This wonder of engineering has been the biggest change in my quality of life since I moved to London in March, and now I truly don’t know if I will be able to go back to living how I did for 25 years.
Central heating is possibly the greatest invention in the world – and it’s one that I had absolutely no experience of before moving countries.
Fewer than 5 per cent of homes in New Zealand have central heating and up until 1978 there were absolutely no regulations for insulation, meaning the majority of the rental stock (where I spent the majority of my adult life) is comprised of damp, draughty and poorly insulated homes rented out at a premium.
In fact, the problem is so bad that New Zealand stands out from most other developed countries in continuing to have high rates of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD), often attributed to our poor housing stock.
It is estimated that 97% of cases of RHD worldwide occur in developing countries and in the indigenous populations of countries such as New Zealand and Australia
Instead of central heating, many homes in New Zealand rely on either plug-in oil heaters or, thanks to Jacinda Ardern’s previous Labour Government, a single heating pump in the main living area of your rental.
What this meant is when living in a flat share, you would message your flatmates on a dark June evening with the wind howling outside and ask if it would be possible to put the heat pump on. If the flat was in agreement, everyone would huddle in the lounge, close the windows and doors to the rest of the house and enjoy the warmth of the single heated room before bravely dashing off to your freezing bedroom, where the lucky would have electric blankets and the less fortunate would have flannelette sheets and two duvets.
A couple of weekends ago I took a trip to Edinburgh Castle and visited the military prisons where soldiers were kept if they were due to be court martialled. As we were touring one of these cells my boyfriend howled with laughter as he pointed to a sign on the wall that informed us these 18th century prisons had central heating – a luxury utterly foreign to me, who had grown up in a first world country in the 21st century and paid rent for the privilege.
But wait, I hear you say, New Zealand is a sub tropical country isn’t it? Surely it can’t get cold in that pacific paradise!
Well, you are wrong. I spent the last seven years in Wellington, which is down the bottom of the North Island and famed for being the windiest city in the world. Arctic blasts whistle across the Cook Strait carrying the bite of snow on them, and when your home is poorly insulated and there’s gaps the size of a £2 coin in your window frames and doors, that icy blast winds its way around your ankles incessantly.
In the South Island, it’s even colder and there’s frequent snow capping the mountains as well as down to sea level.
It may be true that England is colder – but in New Zealand, it’s common to be able to see your breath inside your bedroom, and mushrooms grow with abandon in the bathrooms of flats nestled in the valleys of Wellington.
Now I live in a flat in south-west London and I am having the absolute time of my life. Nestled into a block of flats with people above, below and either side of me, my bedroom never dips below 15 degrees. In fact, it has been below zero outside and my room has been so warm I’ve had to crack a window.
I have double glazing for the first time in my life too. I spent many winters in Wellington sick and shivering beneath multiple blankets, unable to shower past 4pm for fear of my bathroom being colder than the winter winds outside – but now, even though my bathroom doesn’t have double glazing, it’s warm enough to shower at midnight with no fear.
When I extol the virtues of this incredible system to Brits, they don’t seem to grasp just how incredible it is. I have never had the luxury of a warm, dry home and to have it now is truly one of the greatest experiences of my life. I no longer have to spend my winters shivering under blankets or fighting off illness – instead I can go out and explore in the sub-zero temperatures, safe in the knowledge I can return to the safety of my warm house, because someone will have put the heating on.
