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The relationship between the use of unflued gas heaters (UGH, N = 14) and heat pump heaters (HP, N = 12) located in the living rooms, and mould growth on the living room and bedroom walls, of 26 New Zealand (NZ) occupied homes was investigated during winter. Two methods were employed to evaluate the potential of mould growth on walls: (i) measurement of daily hyphal growth rate using a fungal detector (encapsulated fungal spores), and (ii) estimation of fungal contamination based on a four level scale visual inspection. The average wall psychrometric conditions were significantly different between the two heater type groups, in both the living rooms and the bedrooms with the UGH user homes being colder and damper than HP user homes. The UGHs were found to be a significant additional source of moisture in the living rooms which dramatically increased the capacity for fungi to grow on wall surfaces. The average daily hyphal growth rates were 4 and 16 times higher in the living rooms and in the bedrooms of the UGH user homes, respectively. Results from both mould detection methods gave good agreement, showing that the use of a fungal detector was an efficient method to predict the potential of mould growth on the inside of the external walls in NZ homes.

The design of the new type of solar water heater built into the facades did not come from chance. It relies on "prerequisites" and previous studies, namely a) knowledge of the constitution of the solar water heater with its two components solar collectors and storage b) The existence of the well-known Trombe wall concept, c) The facade heating itself formed by solar air collector, d) Our patented innovation since 1989 for the integrated storage solar water heater. The solar water heater type integrated storage solar collector is integrated to the wall facade to reduce the cost and to better intercept solar radiation in winter when the need for hot water are the most important. Moreover, to save hot water for several days, we rely on another concept which is the thermosiphon solar water heater that we have developed and innovated by removing all threaded connections and / or Internal soldering to the solar collector and storage of hot water, thus resulting in innovation of solar water heater wall with thermosiphon, where the collector is in the facade and storage inside. The solar water heating system performs well since a temperature of 64°C should be reached in winter.