In this interview with Rob Croot from Premier Insulation we discuss the removal of the Schedule Method as a compliance pathway — what will the shift mean for designers? And what support is available to help you achieve H1 compliance? 

What is the big change to H1 at the end of the year?

“At the moment there are three pathways for compliance with H1 Energy Efficiency,” explains Rob. “One is the Schedule Method where your construction R-Values need to meet the schedule as per standard. Then there is the Calculation Method where you can offset areas, so if you’ve got a skillion roof that has less space for insulation or a lower R-Value you can make it up in another area. Then there’s a third compliance pathway which is the Modelling Method.” 

“At the end of the year this is changing. The Minister for Building has requested that the Schedule Method is removed as a compliance pathway, with a 12 month period for compliance. So we’ll have 12 months for the industry to adapt to this change.”

How will the removal of the Schedule Method change the way we specify insulation?

“While the Schedule Method is prescriptive — you must meet the R-Value requirements stated for each part of the building, the Calculation Method allows you to manipulate different areas in your construction detailing so overall the building performs.” 

“The shift away from the Schedule Method will drive value engineering for insulation and construction detailing so builders meet the compliance standard, but the insulation won’t need to be over-engineered unless it’s the homeowners choice or a higher performance design that requires greater R-Values.” 

“The challenge for industry is capacity as every dwelling, every building, will now need an H1 calculation to be completed.”

How can Premier Insulation help designers meet H1 requirements?

“We have an in-house team who can manage the H1 compliance and calculation for architects and designers,” explains Rob. “We can look at your project requirements, and whether you want a good, better or best solution. For that Good solution, for example, we’ll use calculations to determine the best value between insulation, windows and slab. We can engineer that so the building is designed to meet H1 and gets the best of what the client needs.”

Why use a design service instead of doing H1 calculations in-house?

“In addition to time savings, the greatest advantage that we can provide, compared with designers doing calculations themselves, is our specialist skill in managing H1 calculations and compliance,” says Rob. “A lot of architects and designers will go, ‘I can do that in-house’, but we see a lot of plans coming through that overlook opportunites to do things cheaper and better because it's not their expertise.”

“Our team knows the price of insulation and we’ve got a good understanding of the cost of slabs, windows and joinery. If we do the H1 calculations we might be able to select the insulation ranges we know will provide the best R-Value and can value-engineer the design before consent or before the project goes ahead,” he explains. “For example, insulation is generally cheap compared to other elements like glazing or insulated slabs. Its not uncommon for us to  provide opportunities to reduce the glazing down to R0.37 from the standard R0.46 for buildings in the upper North Island, which saves thousands of dollars. Or with guidance from the designer we might be able to increase insulation slightly and remove the need for under-slab and slab-edge insulation which again impacts the cost.”

“It becomes really time consuming after consent has been issued for someone to drive changes to get better value, reduce cost or drive a better outcome. Getting it right at the start is very important and adds value. Engaging with specialists before consent, and allowing experts to manage calculations can help you ensure details are compliant before the build.”