Climate change is recognised as one of the greatest challenges facing Australia, and the world today. The consumption of energy in the residential sector is a significant contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore imperative that detailed and accurate quantification of energy consumption is used as a basis for the development of climate change response strategies (DEWHA, 2008). Historically, Australian residential buildings have not been built with energy efficiency as a key concern. However voluntary industry action, government policy and building efficiency standards instituted over the past decade have begun to transform our built environment. Energy consumption in buildings accounts for approximately 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions – split equally between commercial and residential buildings (COAG, 2009).
This research is intended to inform the development ranking of residential buildings in a consistent manner in Australia according to the environmental impact of energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) on a ten star performance scale. The project was formerly the Australian and New Zealand House Energy Rating Scheme or (ANZHERS) project, but is now referred to as the “AccuRate Sustainability” Project.
The AccuRate Sustainability Modules are potential analytical tool for assessors to use as a voluntary add-on to Building Thermal Performance Assessment for Building Code of Australia (BCA) Part 2.6 compliance. AccuRate Sustainability add-ons are planned for the next release of the AccuRate version expected in late 2010, pending further research and proof of concept. The use of the development work and its role in the other 2nd generation NatHERS software is still being discussed.
This report is the culmination of three years of work by a consortium including the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE), the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), CSIRO, BRANZ, Edge Environment, University of South Australia and Light Naturally. The goal of the project was to combine the research modules for energy and GGE from water heating, space conditioning and lighting for ranking of residential buildings for their environmental impacts from energy consumption for fixed appliances in a consistent manner for Australia2 and for implementation into the software development project AccuRate Sustainability. In support of this, the report documents the metrics, the methods of measurement and the benchmarks of performance that determine the range and central points of the rating scales.
Edge Environment and BRANZ, 2010, AccuRate Sustainability – Greenhouse Performance Module Research, Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency