The National Party is campaigning on repealing the healthy homes standards, pointing to the heating calculations as "requir[ing] advanced mathematics to interpret".
However Andrew Eagles, CEO of the Green Building Council, says there are more complicated calculations involved in other crucial regulations.
"I pulled together the calculation for airbags," he told TVNZ 1's Breakfast this morning, whipping out a multi-page document taped together.
"Let's get rid of those, get rid of safe braking speeds, it's too complicated."
He criticised National leader Simon Bridges' announcement yesterday as being a "cheap trick".
"What's really fundamental for New Zealand is that we have warm, safe housing."
Under Mr Bridges' campaign for a "regulation bonfire" , the party is vowing to remove two regulations for every new one brought in.
The under-fire regulations mandate heating in rental homes, making sure living rooms have a valid heater.
Also in the National Party's sights are rules intended to protect tenants in rental homes, including restricting rent raises to once every 12 months, letting tenants have pets and allowing them to modify a property - such as hanging a frame or securing a chest of drawers.
The Prime Minister says there will be benefits for landlords whose rentals with have to meet new standards.
Those rules haven't been brought into force yet, part of Labour's proposed reforms to the Residential Tenancy Act.
In yesterday's announcement, National's finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said the changes would "reduce property rights of landlords… [and] discouraged the supply of rental properties".
"That's not good for the landlord, or the tenant."
Mr Eagles agreed with Mr Bridges' previous comments that rental homes now have more regulations and security than new builds - but argued "he's getting it around the wrong way".
"The better we look after the homes, the less maintenance it will require," he says.
"Our new build standards are absolutely woeful [and] very inefficient. We need higher standards for new homes."
There are free online calculators to help figure out the heating assessment, Mr Eagles says.
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