Winter is looking pretty snug and cosy for Maketu Educare and its children as it happily pulls up its newly installed ‘big blankets' of insulation.

This week Smart Energy Solutions set about installing insulation in the Maketu kohanga reo building as part of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority's home insulation scheme in the Western Bay of Plenty.

TECT operations and grants manager Paula Hudson, Maketu Educare senior teacher Kelsi Lawrence and teacher Hollie Hauraki with the children ahead of the insulation going in this week. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Run since 2006, in conjunction with TECT's annual $400,000 grant, each year 420 pre-2000 homes are insulated in the district with EECA matching TECT's figure.

And as a goodwill gesture on Smart Energy Solutions' part, they insulate a ‘community house' each year for free – endorsed by TECT as a home providing a service to the community.

'We are pretty stoked,” says Maketu Educare head teacher Kelsi Lawrence. 'It will definitely keep the children warmer in winter because it's an older building.”

Dating back to an estimated early 1900s, the centre's building within the confines of Maketu Primary School not only wasn't insulated but in recent times has seen small cracks begin to appear in the walls and floor, posing a problem during colder months.

Maketu EduCare is a non-profit community-based charitable trust set up to provide pre-school education for young children in the local rural community.

Kelsi, who stepped foot in the building 27 years ago as a child herself, says to combat the winter chill the centre has a heat pump with teachers coming in early to warm up rooms ahead of the children's arrival, and it would stay on all day.

'Now it will definitely save a bit of cost in the power because it won't be needing to go all day, just an hour in the morning,” says Kelsi. 'Our children will be nice and cosy.

'We were really stoked because that was one thing we really needed; insulation. The kids called them big blankets.”

TECT operations and grants manager Paula Hudson says it's fantastic to be able to help out the Maketu community and offer some much-needed warmth heading into winter.

In the past Smart Energy Solutions' goodwill gesture has seen Homes of Hope and the Tauranga Nightshelter insulated.

'We chose the kohanga because it's an older villa, they have a wonderful team of staff and keeping children and their teachers warm and healthy is a priority for any community,” says Paula.