Page 25 - Climate Control News Oct-Nov 2020

Residential Air Conditioning
HOT FACTS
The draft Standard proposes that a Green Star Certified home achieve a 40 per cent reduction in water usage when compared against a reference home with measures such as landscaping to mitigate heat stress.
Data shows that 57 per cent of Australia’s total built environment emissions come from our homes and on average across Australia, most energy (40 per cent) is used to heat and cool homes, with the majority going to the heating of homes during winter.
ering health benefits to residents as well as fu- ture-proofing Australia’s residential sector.
“Working in partnership with builders, finan- ciers and investors we want to help ensure the next generation of Australian homes are built better to withstand natural disasters, cope with a changing climate and lessen the built environ- ment’s contribution to emissions,” she said.
“By significantly lifting the standard to which new homes are designed and built we can dramatically improve health and wellbe- ing while at the same time lowering energy bills and helping to meet our emissions reduc- tion commitments.
“Drought, bushfires and now the coronavirus pandemic have all underscored how vital it is to have more resilient housing that better protects the health of residents and the planet.”
Stockland Group executive and CEO Com- munities, Andrew Whitson, said that as Aus- tralia’s largest residential developer, the com- pany is passionate about creating liveable, connected and sustainable communities across the country.
“We are delighted to be partnering with the Green Building Council to deliver one of the first new Green Star Homes in the country as part of the Early Access program,” Wilson said. “This program will make an important contribution to the delivery of sustainable new homes now and into the future.”
Green Star Homes will be a national standard that assesses and certifies a home. It applies the demonstrated success Green Star certification has achieved in other sectors such as office, re- tail and industrial to residential.
For example, Green Star-rated office buildings not only provide a healthier environment for workers, they also deliver a clear ‘green premium’ at the time of sale, higher net incomes and sig- nificantly lower vacancy rates.
“HOMES MUST BE WELL VENTILATED TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF MOULD.”
Achieving Green Star Homes certification will require applicants to meet a range of criteria across three primary categories.
Firstly, Green Star Certified homes will need to be well ventilated to prevent the growth of mould and built to minimise the entry of pollut- ants, such as bushfire smoke. They will need to be thermally comfortable, use materials that are low or non-toxic and have high quality lighting installed.
LEFT: To achieve widespread change at scale, the standard targets volume home builders and large-scale residential developers.
Secondly, they must be resilient. Catastrophic events such as the recent bushfires in 2019 high- light the need to improve resilience standards in the design and construction of new homes.
In Australia, extreme heat kills more people than any other natural disaster. Urban areas, particularly areas with reduced vegetation cover and a lot of hard surfaces absorb, store then radi- ate heat, leading to the urban heat island effect.
Green Star Certified homes will need to be built with proactive measures to be better than Code at withstanding natural disasters and fu- ture climate change conditions such as bush- fires, flooding, and heat stress.
The third criteria is for Green Star Certified homes to be net zero. This means that they have been built to generate sufficient renewable ener- gy to power all estimated regulated loads as well as estimated appliances and plug loads.
They do not use gas, major appliances includ- ing refrigerators, washing machines and dish- washers must have a minimum 4-star energy ef- ficiency rating, solar systems must be battery ready and all windows must be factory built dou- ble glazed IGU (Insulated Glass Units).
Airtightness is a key criterion with more than 25 per cent of heat loss in winter estimated to be caused by draughts. Good insulation when com- bined with airtightness can save homes up to 40 per cent in energy bills every year.
“With our population set to continue growing to 31 million people by 2030, we will need to build an extra 197,000 new homes every year to meet demand,” Rooney said.
“Australians are already feeling the worsening impacts of natural disasters and paying among the world’s highest energy bills, so we must act now to ensure this pipeline of new homes is built to higher sustainability standards.” ✺
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2020
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