An unaccounted-for problem of overheating in some newly built townhouses is being seen as a country-wide problem.  

Frustration is brewing among owners in Auckland who are paying two times more for cooling in the summer than they would for heating in the winter.  

Some townhouses have just one heat pump to cool the three-storey home, which can leave rooms on higher floors unbearably hot.  

But the building code has no requirement to address overheating.  

Team Green Architects owner Sian Taylor told Mike Hosking that there's an issue with a lack of forethought for the longer-term implications of design. 

She says one of the biggest problems is not shading the building properly from the start, which traps the heat inside. 

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