WattDodger
Certified
You're staying in a smart home
Aro Valley Terrace is WattDodger Certified.
A three-bedroom terrace on a time-of-use tariff, synced to its booking calendar. It warms up before check-in and hibernates the moment the last guest leaves.
What that means for your stay
Warm when you arrive. Cheaper to run. Kinder to the grid.
This house stores heat — in its walls and floor, and in its hot-water cylinder. WattDodger decides when to fill those stores, so the heating happens while power is cheap and clean, and the house simply coasts the rest of the time.
Comfort
It's already warm.
The house is brought up to temperature before you arrive, and the hot water is banked overnight so a morning of showers never runs cold. You don't have to find the thermostat, and you don't have to wait for the place to catch up.
Cost
Nothing is wasted.
Heating an empty house, or buying power in the most expensive hours of the day, is money burnt for no comfort. This property does neither — which keeps its running costs down, and keeps the price of your stay honest.
Environment
Cleaner electrons.
New Zealand's grid is at its dirtiest during the morning and evening peaks, when fossil-fuelled plant is brought on to meet demand. By heating overnight and on its own rooftop solar, this house takes its energy when the grid is cleanest — and takes load off it when it is most strained.
This property
Aro Valley Terrace, by the numbers.
of this home’s heating energy is bought outside peak periods, on cheap night power or its own solar.
of the rooftop solar it generates is used in the house, instead of being exported cheaply and bought back dear.
is the measured free-cooling time constant — how slowly this building gives its heat back once it is warm.
of CO₂-equivalent avoided each year by taking this home’s heating load off the grid’s carbon-heavy peaks.
Modelled for this property from its measured thermal response and its electricity tariff, over a full year of typical use. Carbon avoided uses marginal grid emissions factors for the peak periods this house steps out of. These are modelled figures, not a guarantee — a hard winter, or a full house, will move them.
The system in this house
| Heat pump | Air-to-water heat pump on a radiator circuit |
|---|---|
| Solar | 4.2 kW rooftop array |
| Battery | None — the storage is the building and the cylinder |
| Thermal stores | Building fabric and a 250 L hot-water cylinder |
Worth knowing
- The booking calendar drives the schedule: the terrace is at temperature by check-in and drops to a frost-guard setpoint between guests.
- On a still, overcast week the house leans on the night rate instead of solar, and the schedule shifts automatically.
How the house does it
Charge when power is cheap or free. Coast when it isn't.
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Read the day ahead
The booking calendar, the weather and solar forecast, and the tariff's peak, shoulder and night windows.
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Charge the stores
Pre-warm the building and bank hot water on cheap night power and rooftop solar, before the price climbs.
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Coast through peak
Back off the heat pump while power is expensive and carbon-heavy. The house lives on the heat it holds.
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Learn the house
Every cycle refines how fast this house heats and cools, so tomorrow's schedule fits it better than today's.
Take it home
Your house is a battery too.
Every building stores heat. WattDodger works out when to fill that store, so you buy power when it is cheap and clean and coast through the expensive hours — without buying a home battery.
Own or manage this kind of property? Get it WattDodger Certified.