- In 2006, electricity was used to heat 74.8 percent of occupied private dwellings.
- Use of wood to heat dwellings has continued to decrease over the past ten years, from 48.7 percent in 1996 to 40.9 percent in 2006.
- The percentage of dwellings in which no heating fuels were used is relatively unchanged, with 2.4 percent in 2006, compared with 2.8 percent in 2001. Auckland and Northland regions had the highest proportions of occupied private dwellings in which no heating fuels were used, at 4.5 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.
Percentage of Fuel Types Used to Heat Dwellings (total responses) for Private Occupied Dwellings
1996, 2001 and 2006 Censuses |
| Fuel types |
1996 |
2001 |
2006 |
| Electricity |
77.2 |
72.0 |
74.8 |
| Mains gas |
11.6 |
13.5 |
13.2 |
| Bottled gas |
22.3 |
28.3 |
27.7 |
| Wood |
48.7 |
44.7 |
40.9 |
| Coal |
13.0 |
9.3 |
7.0 |
| Solar power |
0.7 |
0.9 |
1.1 |
| No fuels used in this dwelling |
0.9 |
2.8 |
2.4 |
| Other fuel(s) |
1.9 |
1.1 |
2.1 |
| Total |
100 |
100 |
100 |
- Use of bottled gas was highest in the Hawke's Bay Region, at 39.5 percent.
- The use of coal as a heating fuel has continued to decline from 13.0 percent in 1996, to 9.3 percent in 2001, and 7.0 percent in 2006. Of the regions, the West Coast had the highest proportion of coal use to heat dwellings, at 62.4 percent.
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