Ms Orla Coyle:

Obviously, building control is responsible for compliance with building regulations. However, we have worked with our colleagues in the national building control office how to demonstrate NZEB through the calculation methodology used for a BER assessment. We have strengthened the report that gets published from the BER process so that it is watermarked and is linked to a BER assessment. This is so that the building control officer can say, “Yes, that is a published BER”. Then, when we link that back to the BER side we have a rigorous group quality assurance, QA, process on our BERs. We go out to the homes or to the buildings and make sure that all the inputs are accurate and that they reflect what is happening. We have that link.

We improved the output from the BER software so that the building control officer could link it back to a BER assessment and so that they now know that that is a published BER. It is then audited as a separate side.