How closely monitoring households’ energy data can unleash their solar outputs and (possibly) make them more money
December 21, 2022
Richard Bean, The University of Queensland and Neil Horrocks, The University of Queensland Almost one in three Australian households have solar panels on their roofs. Most are motivated by rising electricity prices and environmental concerns. Households are paid a so-called feed-in tariff for surplus energy they export to the grid. While customers would love to […]
7-star housing is a step towards zero carbon – but there’s much more to do, starting with existing homes
September 19, 2022
Gill Armstrong, Climateworks Centre; Alan Pears, RMIT University; Margot Delafoulhouze, Climateworks Centre, and Trivess Moore, RMIT University Energy-efficiency standards for new homes in Australia are being upgraded for the first time in a decade. New homes will be required to improve minimum performance from 6 stars to 7 stars under the Nationwide House Energy Rating […]
Will 7-star housing really cost more? It depends, but you can keep costs down in a few simple ways
September 16, 2022
Trivess Moore, RMIT University and Nicola Willand, RMIT University The required energy-efficiency rating of new housing in Australia will increase from 6 to 7 stars from October next year. Some claim this will greatly increase housing costs. But is this true? Costs for new home owners are the sum of three things: capital costs to […]
NCC 2022
August 29, 2022
Improving Energy Efficiency of New Homes In huge news for the industry, on Friday last week Building Ministers agreed to raise the minimum energy efficiency standards for new homes. This is the largest change to minimum standards in a decade and will deliver cost of living savings to households across Australia. The increase in stringency […]
Summertime
August 23, 2022
Summertime Our very own Senior experimental scientist Melissa James performed at Stir fry Science performing her a song of residential sustainability. If you’d like to play along find the chords and her lyrics below. Summertime (to the tune of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’) (Am E7 Am E7) Am E7 Am E7 Am E7 Am E7 Dm F […]
IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT APARTMENTS
August 22, 2022
It’s time to talk about apartments Rising in popularity, apartments last year made up 58% of all energy rating certificates in NSW. Nationally the AHD Dashboard has collated data on over 70,000 apartments certificates over the past 12 months but we know little about the real world performance of Australia’s stock of apartments. Some say […]
The Darwin Home Comfort Rating Project
July 19, 2022
By Dong Chen Overheating in houses can pose a risk to human health and cause increased hospital admission rates, mortality rates and reduced work productivity. Under the Darwin Living Lab project, a 10-year collaboration between CSIRO and the partners of the Darwin City Deal, the Darwin Home Comfort Rating Project is a collaborative project among […]
RapidRate background
July 19, 2022
By Melissa James Households consume 10.5% of all the energy consumed within Australia . Of this, 40% is used for heating and cooling . Reducing household heating and cooling energy consumption has multiple benefits: reduced energy bills; reduced greenhouse gas emissions; increased network reliability; and increased householder comfort and health. One way to reduce heating […]
Cluster Update
July 19, 2022
Cluster Update By Anthony Wright COVID has been a constant challenge for the past six months and we have had the same issues as everyone in that regard. I hope that as the weather warms up we return to full capacity to deliver some major changes to the energy rating landscape over the next year. […]
In an energy crisis, every watt counts. So yes, turning off your dishwasher can make a difference
June 22, 2022
Anna Malos, Monash University and Emi Minghui Gui, Monash University Australia’s east coast energy market has been on a rocky road for the past few weeks. It begs the question: how could the market change to avoid the next crisis? To date, discussion has largely focused on the need to generate more energy. But there’s […]