Page 29 - Climate Control News Oct 2021

Residential Air Conditioning
LEFT: The NCC proposal is the most significant revision to residential buildings for more than a decade.
NCC 2022 CONSULTATION
Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is seeking comment on proposed amendments to energy efficiency and condensation technical provisions, for possible inclusion in National Construction Code (NCC) 2022.
To help reduce the burden on stakeholders, feedback on NCC 2022 is being sought via two separate consultation stages. Stage 1 was held between 10 May and 11 July 2021 and is now closed.
Some of the more significant amendments proposed in this second and final stage of consultation include a stringency increase in
the thermal performance of homes from the current level, equivalent to 6-stars NatHERS, to the equivalent of 7 stars.
Another amendment is enhanced condensation management provisions, including additional ventilation and wall vapour permeability requirements.
There is also a new provision designed to allow easy retrofit of on-site renewables and electric vehicle charging equipment for class two to class nine buildings.
Consultation ends 17 October, 2021 and the final RIS will be publicly released mid-2022.
Perform, shows that delaying cost-effective changes to the Code by just three years (for ex- ample, implementing changes in the 2025 Code instead of 2022) could cost $2 billion in house- hold energy bills between now and 2030.
The delay would also lock in nine million tonnes of emissions to 2030 and 22 million tonnes to 2050.
ASBEC’s interim executive director, Alison Scotland, said buildings offer one of the most cost-effective, jobs-rich opportunities for energy savings and emissions abatement, with broader benefits that cannot be ignored.
She said the government’s commitment to en- ergy productivity for households is the right pri- ority right now and there is a big opportunity to do much more in coming years.
RMIT RESEARCH
The NCC proposal is the most significant revision to the residential construction code since the in- troduction of 6 star ratings in 2010, according to Dr Trivess Moore, senior lecturer at RMIT Uni-
versity’s Sustainable Building Innovation Lab. “The likely increase from 6 to 7 stars as a mini- mum performance requirement is a critical step on the path towards near zero carbon/energy housing,” he said.
“An increase from 6 to 7 stars would result in an average reduction in energy for heating and cool- ing of 24 per cent across Australia.
“The performance of new Australian housing is at least 40 per cent worse than many other de- veloped countries in similar climate zones. While the move to 7 stars will close this gap, there is much more that we could be doing right now.”
“THESE REVISIONS WILL REDUCE ENERGY USE FOR HEATING AND COOLING BY 24 PER CENT ACROSS AUSTRALIA.”
Moore said research undertaken at RMIT Uni- versity found that more than 80 per cent of new housing in Australia is only built to the minimum 6 star standard, with less than 1.5 per cent built to the optimal environmental and economic perfor- mance of 7.5 stars demonstrating the need to im- prove minimum regulatory requirements.
“Increasing the minimum star rating alone will not be enough. There is an issue across the indus- try with performance not matching design out- comes. Any changes to minimum performance requirements must be accompanied by greater accountability in the building industry to deliver improved outcomes,” Moore said.
Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University, Alan Pears, said Australia’s progress on build- ing energy performance has been overly de-
pendent on regulation as the main driver for the past 30 years.
“Regulation only sets basic minimum stand- ards and provides no reward for innovators and leaders. Regulation is slow to respond to the rap- id changes we are facing,” Pears said.
“COVID is driving greater focus on the ten- sions between indoor air quality, high ventila- tion rates and energy efficiency. These can be re- solved by energy recovery ventilation, which preheats or precools incoming air using exhaust air, or by high efficiency air purifiers.
“The 2019 NCC introduced separate require- ments for summer and winter, which was a step forward. 2022 will see updated climate data, but not data reflective of conditions that will exist over the life of a new dwelling,” he said.
“We need much more focus on summer perfor- mance. This should include performance in late summer and autumn, when the sun is lower in the sky but extreme heat will be more likely. This will require more focus on adjustable shading. “New home buyers deserve better information to guide their decisions. For example, existing rat- ing tools can show how each room performs in extreme hot and cold weather. Regulations should require that this information be provided before a buyer signs up."
ABOVE (L-R): Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University, Alan Pears. ASBEC’s interim executive director, Alison Scotland.
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS OCTOBER 2021
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