The Daily Blog Open Mic – 12th August 2025

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/569684/wellington-social-housing-residents-desperate-measures-during-unbearable-summer-heat
Up to 30oC. Can’t we build better than this! We are nearly back to the standards? of 100 years ago. Aren’t there windows?
[J.] Buchanan has lived at the Newtown Park Apartments for more than a decade, and said she had raised the problem since she moved in.
“I have already whited out my windows, I close the drapes, and the windows are open, yet it still is really, really, really, really hot,” she said.
In April, Buchanan took community housing provider Te Toi Mahana to the Tenancy Tribunal, but lost.
She was seeking compensation for the portable air conditioning unit she had purchased.
The tribunal found while Buchanan’s arguments about overheating had merit, there were “no regulatory or legislative requirements for cooling buildings” – so she could not prove the landlord had breached her tenancy agreement, or tenancy law…

Te Toi Mahana housing services general manager Daniel Tai said it went “above and beyond” for tenants.
“To deal with overheating we provide two primary means of support, either facilitate a transfer to a cooler property, to another home that better suits their needs, or helping secure finance for cooling appliances.”
That involved providing a letter of support if tenants wished to seek help from the Ministry of Social Development.
…Portable air conditioning units were effective but pricey and difficult to use, so they were not a viable long-term solution for public housing tenants, the research said…

Overheating missing from Healthy Homes standards
Otago University senior research fellow Dr Kimberley O’Sullivan, who also worked on the study and leads the public health department’s overheating research, said government regulations forced landlords to ensure homes were not too cold – but there was nothing to stop them being too hot.
It had become more of a problem over the last few summers, she said.
“We haven’t really taken into account how to design for keeping ourselves cool during the summer in our homes.
“This is a space where both policy and research are kind of running to catch up and try and understand what’s happening now, and then think through how we could rapidly make some changes so that our houses can protect us from outdoor temperatures both in winter and in summer.”

Climate change requires changes in our methods and laws, and this landlord has been caught up in the melee as a result of government’s lackadaisical approach. Unfortunately our politicians and the economic device they receive (not advice), are not up to the job of coping with reality rather than their dreamworld of met wants. And we pay planners and advisors exorbitant salaries-perks for their awfully backward directions: change the signposts, goalposts! But that proves to them we can’t do better, haven’t a clue. And so it goes. How low can we go in this advanced civilisation?

3 COMMENTS

Greywarbler August 12, 2025 At 1:33 pm

Living conditions down in nz – this situation mouldy bread, will arise. See this helpful vid and site.
https://lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz/is-it-safe-to-eat-mouldy-food/
Greywarbler August 12, 2025 At 6:10 pm

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/569684/wellington-social-housing-residents-desperate-measures-during-unbearable-summer-heat
Up to 30oC. Can’t we build better than this! We are nearly back to the standards? of 100 years ago. Aren’t there windows?
[J.] Buchanan has lived at the Newtown Park Apartments for more than a decade, and said she had raised the problem since she moved in.
“I have already whited out my windows, I close the drapes, and the windows are open, yet it still is really, really, really, really hot,” she said.
In April, Buchanan took community housing provider Te Toi Mahana to the Tenancy Tribunal, but lost.
She was seeking compensation for the portable air conditioning unit she had purchased.
The tribunal found while Buchanan’s arguments about overheating had merit, there were “no regulatory or legislative requirements for cooling buildings” – so she could not prove the landlord had breached her tenancy agreement, or tenancy law…

Te Toi Mahana housing services general manager Daniel Tai said it went “above and beyond” for tenants.
“To deal with overheating we provide two primary means of support, either facilitate a transfer to a cooler property, to another home that better suits their needs, or helping secure finance for cooling appliances.”
That involved providing a letter of support if tenants wished to seek help from the Ministry of Social Development.
…Portable air conditioning units were effective but pricey and difficult to use, so they were not a viable long-term solution for public housing tenants, the research said…

Overheating missing from Healthy Homes standards
Otago University senior research fellow Dr Kimberley O’Sullivan, who also worked on the study and leads the public health department’s overheating research, said government regulations forced landlords to ensure homes were not too cold – but there was nothing to stop them being too hot.
It had become more of a problem over the last few summers, she said.
“We haven’t really taken into account how to design for keeping ourselves cool during the summer in our homes.
“This is a space where both policy and research are kind of running to catch up and try and understand what’s happening now, and then think through how we could rapidly make some changes so that our houses can protect us from outdoor temperatures both in winter and in summer.”

Climate change requires changes in our methods and laws, and this landlord has been caught up in the melee as a result of government’s lackadaisical approach. Unfortunately our politicians and the economic device they receive (not advice), are not up to the job of coping with reality rather than their dreamworld of met wants. And we pay planners and advisors exorbitant salaries-perks for their awfully backward directions: change the signposts, goalposts! But that proves to them we can’t do better, haven’t a clue. And so it goes. How low can we go in this advanced civilisation?
Greywarbler August 12, 2025 At 11:00 pm

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2508/S00176/easier-and-cheaper-repair-no-thanks.htm
Have you caught up with these guys and girls?
Repair Network Aotearoa (RNA)
w: http://www.repairnetworkaotearoa.org.nz

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2508/S00176/easier-and-cheaper-repair-no-thanks.htm
…What is the Right to Repair
The global Right to Repair (RtR) movement emerged to counter the trend of product manufacturers increasingly restricting the repair and the repairability of their products, in pursuit of business models that rely on continual product replacement. …

Sounds very worthy and about time!!

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