Heating one Wellington child's bedroom for a month would eat through almost half the Winter Energy Payment

Residential homes, Mt Victoria, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The cost of heating a child's bedroom overnight during a Wellington winter would use almost half of the Government's Winter Energy Payment.

Researchers at the University of Otago, Wellington have found that 46 per cent of the payment would be eaten by trying to keep a bedroom at 18C – the recommended temperature to prevent respiratory infections.

They calculated it would cost parents $58 a month to heat one child's bedroom based on an electricity price of 32.2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). The weekly 2021 Winter Energy Payment for beneficiaries with dependent children was equivalent to a total of $127.28 for four weeks.

To do this, researchers placed thermostatically controlled electric heaters in 152 children's bedrooms for eight weeks in autumn and winter. The heaters were set to 20C or 21C, with timers set to come on 30 minutes before the child's bedtime and to switch off 30 minutes before their expected waking time.

Other data was gathered about the homes that were being heated and researchers found five key factors drive up energy use and costs.

These were keeping children's bedroom doors open, mid-winter temperatures, having mould in the bedroom, the house being built before 1978 and it having two or more exterior walls.

Researcher Dr Caroline Shorter says the current Winter Energy Payment is "a welcome contribution" - but it's not enough.

"The payment needs to be increased again this winter with more people at home because of isolation rules and the increased need to ventilate homes to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Shorter says the payment should be based on real-world data about energy use and costs, and by not providing enough money to cover the increased cost of heating a home the Government is undermining its own efforts.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) housing and health guidelines are clear that all rooms in a house, including bedrooms, should be at a minimum 18C, and 20C for vulnerable populations.

But previous research has found average winter living room temperatures in New Zealand to be 16.3C and the average winter bedroom temperature to be just 14C.

Shorter says it's "concerning" so many people struggle to heat their homes.

"It is concerning, particularly for a group on higher than average incomes than the general population, that more than two-thirds reported their homes were cold in the winter and that 20 per cent of children's bedrooms were so cold that parents had shivered while inside them. One third reported that they 'put up with feeling cold' to save on heating costs."

Shorter says energy poverty is thought to be a factor in New Zealand's high rate of excess winter mortality of about 1600 deaths a year and excess winter hospitalisation rates of about 7166 patients a year.

"Given what we know about respiratory viral infections in early life being a risk factor for childhood asthma, there is a reasonable rationale to extend the Winter Energy payment to all families with infants and young children in the same way that it is provided universally to superannuitants - who can choose to opt-out if they do not need the payment."