Project overview
In April 2023, the Australian Government announced funding to expand the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) to offer energy assessment and ratings for existing homes. This would involve modelling of existing homes through the CSIRO developed AccuRate Enterprise – Existing (AE-E) software to obtain an energy star rating.
One of the challenges of modelling existing homes is obtaining the dimensional data that is required. Unlike new homes that have dimensioned plans, existing homes generally don’t have plans and traditionally a time-consuming onsite measure up has been required. CSIRO have been exploring how to better streamline the data collection process for AE-E. One such method is using LiDAR scanning technology built into mobile devices to collect and record spatial dimensions coupled with survey questions to capture construction information. This can then be exported directly into AE-E to simplify a full NatHERS energy rating.
This project aims to undertake field trials of this proposed methodology to explore its feasibility and accuracy.
What does participation involve?
Participation in these trials will involve you granting us permission to access your home to perform a LiDAR scan and collect construction information of your home. The scan and data collection will be undertaken by a trained energy rating assessor with full liability insurance. This process will take approximately half an hour to complete but may take longer on larger and more complicated homes. There will be no cost involved to the household, and a copy of the energy rating trial certificate and scan report will be provided to the homeowner.
Would you like to be involved?
If you would like to be involved, then please download and read through this Research Participant Information Sheet. It outlines all the information you need and also has contact details of the research leads if you would like to ask further questions. It also covers the important issue of your privacy and how we will use the data we collect.
After you have read this information and are happy to be involved, then please complete the consent form below.
Consent Form
- I have agreed to participate in the above project being conducted by CSIRO.
- I have been provided with information about the project and had any questions regarding my participation and any associated risks and benefits answered to my satisfaction. I understand my participation in the research will allow a fully qualified energy rating assessor to undertake an energy assessment of my house. This will include a LiDAR scan of my house.
- I have been provided with contact details of the investigating officers and understand that I can contact them at any point during the study. I have also been provided with the contact details of an independent ethics officer at CSIRO should I wish to raise any concerns or complaints about the conduct of the research.
- I understand that my participation in the project is entirely voluntary and that I am free to withdraw from the study at any time and without having to provide a reason for my withdrawal.
- I understand that up until my identification has been removed from the data I may ask for part or all of the information provided by me to be removed from the study without penalty or explanation.
- I understand that the information I provide for this research will be used for the following purposes: for scholarly publications, conference presentations and reports, media releases, public datasets and government policy and program development, and will be treated confidentially. I will not be identified in any publications resulting from the study except where I have given my written permission for this to occur.
- Information provided by me will only be accessed by members of the research team and used for the purposes outlined above and will be stored securely by CSIRO.
What happens next?
Once we receive your completed consent form, we will review your eligibility to participate and if successful, we will then endeavour to allocate your dwelling to an available energy assessor.
Please Note: For this trial we only have a limited number of energy assessors available. Consequently, we can only include dwellings that are within specific areas. Dwellings in remote and/or rural areas may need to be excluded because it is not feasible to visit these areas during this initial trial. We apologise if your home is not able to be included.
