Ever wondered why it’s so cold in your house, office, school or any other New Zealand building? It seems the spirit of the Oliver Twist orphanage is within whoever wrote the clause G5 of the building code, which outlines the conditions we live, work and learn in.
It would make sense for conditions inside buildings to be comfortable and healthy to live in, but clause G5 misses this goal by a mile.
The exact wording is as follows: “PERFORMANCE G5.3.1 Habitable spaces, bathrooms and recreation rooms shall have the provision for maintaining the internal temperature at no less than 16C measured at 750mm above floor level, while the space is adequately ventilated.”
And the only requirement for heating in the Building Code: “Performance G5.3.1 shall apply only to old people’s homes and early childhood centres.”
Start your property search
According to the building code, there is no requirement for heating in homes, schools, offices or even hospitals. Nowhere in the rest of the document is any other performance requirement for the internal environment.
• There is no performance goal for humidity to guard against damp.
• There are no performance goals for internal contaminants such as or other pollutants.
16C is below the WHO recommended minimum temperature for health, so it beggars belief that, in 2020, a building standard for something as critically important as the conditions we live in is this low.
Standards were higher back in 1947. In 1947 the housing improvement act defined that: “Every living room shall be fitted with a fireplace and chimney or other approved form of heating.”
The legislation was introduced in 1947 and reads like legislation from a bygone age. It is like the last 70 years of technology, knowledge and changes in building practices never happened. However, this is the only requirement for heating in houses anywhere in legislation in New Zealand. Local Authorities are responsible for implementing this. If you don’t have a suitable heater or your home is damp, the local authority is responsible for enforcing this legislation. I don’t know why they don’t.
It seems crazy that in 2020 we are arguing about whether buildings should have heating. It would not be acceptable anywhere outside Australasia to construct buildings with no form of heating.
Fortunately, things are starting to change. MBIE have recently released a framework set of proposals that explicitly set a goal to “improve the health and wellbeing of occupants by improving buildings’ indoor environmental qualities”.
You can find out more about the proposals here.
- James Powers is director of Oculus Architectural Engineering
