HVAC industry major effects on changes to New Zealand building code

Changes to the New Zealand Building Code that will have Major Effects on the HVAC industry

Robert Mannes – MIRHACE, BE (Hons) Mechanical

Jaime Groen – BE (Hons) Mechanical

In late November the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) issued the updates to the New Zealand Building Code.

The H1 requirement have now been spread over 5 separate documents:

Acceptable Solution H1/AS1

• Acceptable Solution H1/AS2

• Verification Method H1/VM1

Verification Method H1/VM2

• Verification Method H1/VM3

The documents that can be used to prove compliance are based on the building type and are summarised in the table below.

The most significant change affecting the HVAC industry currently are related to the buildings with a Commercial classification.

This included more prescriptive requirements for HVAC systems requirements and the reporting required when applying for a building consent.

The intention for the changes is to reduce the energy use of buildings by 40% from the previous Building Code requirements. This will also require a rethink on how we build buildings.

In this article we are attempting to provide an overview of the proposed changes.

Some of the changes don’t directly affect an installer, but we’ve hopefully covered off the main changes to building construction for commercial buildings and touched upon both glazing and insulation requirements as well.

As always, these changes will add significant cost to the construction of a building when they come into force.

The main change which will affect the HVAC industry is MBIE have added a whole new section to the H1 stable of acceptable solutions and verification methods, namely NZBC/H1 VM3, which was issued and came in to force immediately – this specifically covers the installation of HVAC systems in buildings and is current now – so industry is required to meet the minimum requirements listed.

So if you are submitting a building consent after November 29th 2021 you will need to meet the requirements of H1/VM3.

Read the full article in the Industry Journal, March 2022 issue