Page 29 - HW April 2022

through the framing than the insulation, which has the effect of reducing the overall effectiveness of the wall insulation.”
Kingspan Thermakraft’s Todd Lindsay says of this
revelation: “The most positive thing about the change is the acknowledgement of the fact that what we have been building isn’t even compliant to the old Code.
“So, I think we’re merely lifting the market to a level where [the level of insulation] is probably more acceptable, but by no means exceptional.
“If you look at the UK with a similar climate, their insulation values are still a lot higher than ours.”
Nevertheless, November’s H1 Energy Efficiency changes are already “a change for good,” according to IBS and Skippy Bessant.
“We need to do better – we tend to build houses as cheap as we can, not as good as we can.
“People spend 50 or 100 grand on a kitchen, but meanwhile they’ve got 2.2 insulation in the walls and paper wrapped around the outside of the house!”
Murray Durbin calls the changes to insulation in H1 “sensible”, adding he would still have preferred if the outcome due in November had offered more for walls and less for roofs.
“We know we need to do walls – R2 internationally is really, really low – but they’ve said we can’t do walls right now
because the industry can’t cope.”
“I would have preferred them to do something on both and
drive the industry along, because in two or three years’ time the walls are going to have to have a pretty drastic upgrade.”
Alex McGregor at Autex says that, despite the apparent fuss being aired elsewhere around the changes to H1, the reality is that they are at least achievable: “If people like Kainga Ora, education, aged care, aren’t throwing their toys out of the cot, then the changes aren’t that hard.
“I would like people to be quite positive about the changes, what with all the other things that are going on in the market.
“This is one thing I don’t think the industry should need to worry about.”
Other changes will happen over time, he says, which will have more profound consequences (and costs) – issues of moisture from thicker wall insulation, a drive towards airtight vapour barriers which will bring with it less need for insulation but introduces a need for active ventilation...
Murray Durbin agrees that airtightness is becoming increasingly common, if not consistently mandatory in other countries, because “you can build a highly insulated home, but if it’s not well sealed up, all that hot air just escapes.”
Indeed it does.
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APRIL 2022 | NZHJ 27