Construction

The combinations of materials used to build the main elements of our homes — roof, walls and floor — are referred to as construction systems.

The majority of new housing stock is built to a common formula that varies only slightly between states and cities. However, in some areas other factors may drive a particular construction system. For example, homes in coastal tropical areas need to comply with cyclone building requirements and this will often limit the types of construction systems that can be used.

Limitations with construction systems

For the dashboards the grouping of the construction systems is based on the construction system name that the energy assessor provides in the creation of the Universal Certificate. Currently this is a free text field in the software tools meaning that an assessor is able to use whatever name they like to describe the construction system. Usually this is descriptive enough to allow us to place a particular construction system into a general category. However, sometimes this is not possible and consequently we have to categorise these construction systems as unknown. This is a particular problem with data obtained from FirstRate5 generated certificates as this software packages allows the use of terms such as “as specified” or “as shown on plan” to describe construction systems and this is the only construction information that is passed through to the data portal. Consequently, any construction system labelled this way is categorised as “Unknown”.

Construction Dashboards

Construction Overview – Overview of wall, floor and roof constructions by States and Territories

Walls – External wall constructions by States and Territories and postcodes

Floors – Floor constructions by States and Territories and postcodes

Roofs – Roof constructions by States and Territories and postcodes

Windows – Window number and size by orientation.  uValue and SHGC value of windows by State and Territory

Insulation – Insulation levels in ceilings, walls, floors and roofs

Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme
Supported by data from the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) www.nathers.gov.au