House Energy Rating

A House Energy Rating is an index of a building's thermal performance (i.e. heating and cooling requirements) for residential homes in Australia.

The Australian Building Codes Board introduced energy efficiency measures for houses into the Building Code of Australia (BCA) on 1 January 2003. It has been adopted by all Australian states and territories which did not already have an equivalent system in place. Victoria and South Australia have gone beyond the standard, and mandated a 5-star rating, instead of 4-stars. During 2006, requirements for 5-star energy ratings were introduced for new homes through the BCA in Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. As of mid 2007 Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory have not adopted 5 star requirements for new homes. New South Wales has not adopted requirements under the BCA and operates its own Building Sustainability Index or BASIX.

Controversies

The rating system does not consider factors such as sustainable materials, electricity sources, waste treatment and transportation to, from and within urban environments.
There are a number of ways the user of the FirstRate software can cheat the program to achieve higher star ratings, many such techniques have been learned by TAFE students as they learn the program, it is not difficult to learn and requires only selecting particular variables whose values are inherently inaccurate.
Keeping the above in mind, some elements such as draught strips, insulation, etc can be selected in FirstRate but may never be included in the final drawings. In many cases, builders do not install particular systems properly, this combined with many other factors means that the completed building can be sometimes have a rating of up to 3 stars different from its initial rating.
The legislation was passed before there was actually a method to rate the buildings, the software was rush released and as a result is inaccurate and inappropriate.
The ratings were seen as a quick short-term answer to a problem that the government at the time had to deal with and as a result, no long term solution exists and the problem itself remains mostly unsolved.
Large companies such as Simmonds, AV Jennings, etc, have been accused of cheating the rating system to achieve higher stars to market their pre-built product homes as more environmentally friendly.
The rating system does not deal with many of the problems inherent in low-density urban environments.
FirstRate and the Green Star system has been the subject matter of a prolific running joke within the building industry within Metropolitan Melbourne since its creation, and has become synonymous with issues government inaction and short-sightedness in the industry.
Many explain[who?] that the anti-progressive nature of Australia's building industry requires tough action and long-term solutions when dealing with issues of sustainability to counter ingrained attitudes.

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House Energy Rating

Controversies