What is assessed?

A dwelling is assessed on the following information to produce an energy star rating:
• the layout of the home
• the construction of its roof, walls and floors
• the floor coverings
• the colour of the roof and external walls
• the style and type of windows
• the orientation of windows and shading to the sun's path and local breezes
• how well these suit the local climate

What do the stars mean?

• Zero star home - the building envelope does practically nothing to reduce the effects of hot or cold weather, the thermal performance is very poor.
• 5 star home - indicates a good but not outstanding thermal performance.
• 10 star home - means the occupants are unlikely to need any artificial cooling or heating due to the buildings outstanding thermal performance.

Contact us here to get your project/assessment underway.

House Energy Ratings

In 2004, software programs were introduced to evaluate the heating and cool loads of a Class 1 Building as laid out in the BCA's Volume 2, Part 3.12 Energy Efficiency. This process is called a House Energy Rating and it uses computer simulations to assess the potential thermal performance of a house on a scale of zero to 10 stars. The higher the star rating the better the thermal performance of the house is to resist winter losses and summer gains.

Winter Loss Summer Gain

While a House Energy Rating calculates the energy required for the heating and cooling loads of a house, it does not calculate the energy use of the hot water systems, lights or other household appliances. These items are not part of the rating because these fittings are usually replaced several times during the life of the building.

Solar Panels for producing electricity are also not included in a House Energy Rating for the same reason as above, no Star Values can be added to a Rating as an offset.

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