Flexible, performance-based energy compliance support for residential projects using the NCC 2022 VURB pathway and Specification 44 reporting.
If your design is struggling to achieve a 7-star rating—or you don’t want to compromise your design to get there—a VURB (Verification Using a Reference Building) assessment offers an alternative pathway to compliance. At SEEDHAUS™, we provide VURB and Specification 44 reports that demonstrate your home performs as well as, or better than, a compliant reference building.
What Is a VURB Report?
VURB is an alternative NCC compliance method that compares your proposed home to a reference building that meets Deemed-to-Satisfy requirements. If your design performs equally or better, it can still comply—even without achieving a 7-star NatHERS rating. In simple terms, two models are prepared: a reference building and the proposed design. If the proposed home performs equal to or better than the reference building, it can be taken to comply, even where the star rating is lower than 7.
What Is a Specification 44 Report?
A Specification 44 report documents how the reference building has been defined, how the proposed design has been modelled and compared, and how heating and cooling loads and other required performance measures meet the relevant thresholds.
It documents:
Used together, VURB and Specification 44 provide a clear, structured, NCC-recognised pathway for demonstrating compliance when standard software or Deemed-to-Satisfy pathways are not the best fit for the project.
When Should You Use VURB?
VURB may be the right approach when:
This pathway can help preserve important architectural features while still demonstrating that the home’s overall performance is satisfactory against the NCC reference building. It’s a smarter, performance-based solution that maintains design intent.
Simple, clear, and approval-focused.
Why Choose SEEDHAUS?
