Heat pumps for central Dunedin and the hill suburbs

Roslyn, Mornington, Maori Hill and Wakari sit well above the middle of town, and they behave like a different climate to the flat. Frosts arrive earlier and linger, the wind finds the exposed streets, and the housing is largely Edwardian villas and older bungalows with high studs and single glazing. A unit chosen on floor area alone will not keep up.

High ceilings and why they change the number

The villas through Roslyn, Mornington and Maori Hill were built with studs of three metres and more. A lounge that measures 30 square metres holds close to half again the air of the same footprint in a modern build, and heat rises straight to the top of it where nobody is sitting.

So sizing is done on volume, not floor area, and on how much escapes through lath and plaster ceilings into an unlined roof space. Your installer measures the height along with the room. If the ceiling insulation is thin or missing, say so at the quote, because it changes the answer.

Placement is awkward in these houses too. Sash windows, picture rails and a fireplace on the chimney wall usually leave one workable stretch of wall, and it is rarely the obvious one. A unit angled down the length of the room beats a tidier position that blows into a doorway.

Frost, aspect and the steep streets

Height buys you frost. The hill suburbs drop below zero more often than the flat does, and a clear still night after a southerly is the worst of it. Cold-climate performance genuinely matters here: what you want to know is the heating output at around 2 degrees, not the headline rating taken at 7.

Aspect matters as much as altitude. A north-facing Roslyn villa picks up real sun through the middle of a winter day and needs less than the same house on the shaded southern side of the same ridge. Your installer looks at which way the living rooms face before recommending a size.

The streets themselves are a practical factor. Access for the outdoor unit on a steep section with a long flight of steps affects where it can sensibly sit and which way the pipework runs, which is the sort of thing settled on site rather than over the phone. The heat pump installation page covers how the job runs.

North Dunedin and the flats

North Dunedin is its own case: a dense band of student flats in old villas that were cut up decades ago, frequently cold, frequently damp, and rented rather than owned.

For a landlord the Healthy Homes heating requirement is the driver, and the calculation is done on the main living room rather than the whole house. Get the sizing documented properly at the quote, because an undersized unit that does not meet the standard is a false economy.

For the house itself, a heat pump in the living area plus some ventilation does more for the damp than any amount of portable heaters, which add moisture as fast as they add warmth. The installation cost page sets out the ranges by unit size.

Keeping it going up here

Frost on the outdoor unit is normal, not a fault. The unit runs a defrost cycle, steams for a few minutes and carries on, and on a hard Dunedin morning you will see that several times. What matters is that it can drain: a unit sitting in a puddle that refreezes each night has a much shorter life.

Keep the outdoor unit clear of shrubbery and off the ground where the section allows it, and have it looked over every year or two. Regular heat pump servicing matters more in a frost-prone suburb than in a mild one, because the defrost cycle works the unit harder.

Suburbs covered in Central Dunedin and the hill suburbs

• Central Dunedin
• North Dunedin
• Mornington
• Roslyn
• Maori Hill
• Kaikorai
• Wakari
• Halfway Bush

Somewhere else around the district? Your local installer also covers Otago Peninsula and the beaches, South Dunedin and the flat and Mosgiel, Outram and the Taieri. The full list is on the areas we serve page, or get a free quote for your place.