ELECTION 2023
How will new energy standards affect Australia’s building sector? With changes in Australia’s National Construction Code (NCC), the building sector there needs to adapt, Environment.co’s Jane Marsh says
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n addition to a few other adjustments, the most considerable difference comes with the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). Since 2010, houses built in Australia have had to confer a minimum six energy rating. However, with this new legislation, this is no longer the case — the standard has changed from a six to seven. Here is 32 propertyandbuild.com
what the recent seven-star rating changes and the impact it could have on the Australian building sector.
What Is Changing With the New Energy Efficiency Standards? NatHERS is an energy efficiency scale for houses built in Australia and goes up to a ten — which means the home requires
no artificial temperature control. In other words, the higher the rating, the less energy it would use. This energy-efficiency scale considers a few factors, such as the home’s location, insulation, materials, design aspects, climate and layout. Current residential buildings in Australia account for 24% of overall electricity usage and 10% of total greenhouse
gas emissions. With the implementation of this higher rating system, a decrease of 24% is projected for Australia’s home energy. In addition to cutting energy costs, these standards will decrease overall emissions and improve the protection homes offer against weather effects. In other words, this bump up in rating will make
