Climate Control
Austin wouldn’t run without central air conditioning and heating in 99.9% of the buildings. It gets extremely hot in the summer, 100-107ºF (38-42ºC) is not unusual or unheard of. This heat means we stayed in doors, pretty much all day with the windows and doors tightly shut, keeping the cold air in. It was the end of the world if something happened to the gargantuan AC units - yes, plural - that kept our house cool. Notice a size difference with these units?
As we quickly learned, Auckland has a totally different approach to climate control. Central air is not the norm in homes, though “ducted” systems are starting to become more common. For most homes we’ve seen, however, there are multiple steps to keeping cool in the summer and warm in the winter. But first,
Auckland’s climate is mild. There isn’t a huge variation in temperatures in any given day or, honestly, throughout the year. The summer highs average in the mid-seventies (around 24ºC) and the winter highs average around the high fifties/low sixties (about 15ºC). In the night, it will cool down about 15/16 degrees F (or 8 degrees C) lower. In addition to the mild temperatures, the city’s position next to the sea means there is nearly always a breeze to help keep things pleasant.
Windows are the first line of defense. Kiwis’ attitude towards cooling things down is to take a manual approach. If you’re hot? Get up and open a window or door. Things too cool? Probably a window is open and you should get up and close it. I have a love affair with louvered windows like those on the left. They let in cool air but keep rain out for the most part. And the accordion doors on the right are everywhere! Opening the doors makes for true indoor/outdoor living, and usually the homes are designed to take advantage of all of the cross winds to keep everything pleasant.
I have mixed feelings about the New Zealand natural approach to air conditioning. On one hand, it is annoying to have to remember to open and close windows and doors all of the time. I’ve been spoiled with my preset temperature schedules and automatic heating and cooling. On the other hand, I have to admit that I like feeling connected to the world around me. I feel more grounded and aware just by paying attention to my body’s temperature. There’s the added bonus of not feeling sick and congested from breathing recycled air, too.
Heating is on a room-by-room basis. See that white rectangle hanging above my favorite picture, Party Animal? That’s what Kiwis call a heat pump, though I’ve heard them called a “mini-split” in the U.S. It’s a small unit that is designed to heat a 30x12 foot space. And it will do that only after I manually turn it on using a yellow remote that I often misplace. We have two of these in our house: one in the main living area and one in the master bedroom. I’ve heard it will cool, too, but I’ve never needed it for that. This means that I can, with a click of a button, heat two rooms in my entire house. Now don’t get me wrong, these are important rooms to heat, but they leave out a lot of other important areas, like the kids’ bedrooms.
For the kids’ bedrooms, we have to employ good ol’ space heaters like the one on the right. It is oil based, so it puts out a very mild, very effective heat during the winter nights when it can drop down to the mid-forties. Fortunately, it rarely gets any colder than that. Freezing temperatures in Auckland are news-worthy.
So what’s my take on the lack of central heating and cooling? It is annoying at first, but then, like many things, the newness fades and it is just part of life. One of the things that is so magical about Auckland is the focus on the outdoors made possible by the climate. It is nice to be able to take advantage of that while indoors, too.
