The punters are running feral over at Kiwiblog, inspired by Jeanette’s appearance on Close Up last night defending the proposed energy efficient home hot water standard. Most are trotting out the tired old “nanny state” line and falsely claiming the Greens are wanting to ban high pressure shower heads.
And someone called Brad got so excited about it that he’s come to g.blog and posted a comment (naming his bathroom with capital letters) in the g.blog rules thread, because he couldn’t find anywhere else appropriate.
So I thought I’d give Brad a thread to comment on, and clear a few matters up.
First, this is not a ban on anything. No-one will be forced to change their shower head. The standard will apply only to new buildings and to major renovations. The proposal is for new homes to have more energy efficient hot water systems. An efficient hot water system will save homeowners money by lowering power and gas bills.
Second, there a several ways in which the standard will be able to be met, including:
- installing low flow shower heads
- insulating/lagging water pipes to minimize heat loss
- minimizing the distance between the hot water source and the outlet
- installing a solar water heating system
But instead of doing some research and finding out about it, the Kiwiblog commenters and Brad just resort to the tired old “nanny state” / “it’s a ban” routine that they inevitably use to attack the Greens. I’m surprised they didn’t come up with a high pressure energy inefficient shower head being necessary for effective child discipline too.
g.blog 
Is a low flow head strong enough for a girl to get off with?
It’s a shame. All the people at kiwiblog are getting hot under the collar over this. Is this nothing.
With the changes that are really needed, they wont know what hit them.