6 Star NatHERS Rating for Buildings

Country / jurisdiction: Australia · Year: 2010 · Status: In force · Level: National · Type: Voluntary

The Building Code Australia (BCA) has energy efficiency provisions for all building classifications. Australia revised the BCA to account for energy efficiency as part of its strategic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

To complement passage of the housing provisions, Australian governments agreed to implement a consistent Nation-wide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) to enable householders to assess the energy efficiency of houses and make more informed choices about housing purchases and renovation.

The Commonwealth Government administers NatHERS on behalf of States and Territories.

Energy efficiency provisions for detached and semi-detached dwellings were included in the BCA on 1 January 2003. From 1 May 2006, the provisions were increased to a nominal 5 star NatHERS rating. In April 2009 the Council of Australian Governments requested the ABCB to increase the standard for new residential buildings in the BCA to a six-star NatHERS energy rating or equivalent, and include standards for water heaters and lighting. These measures were successfully incorporated into the BCA 2010 edition. All measures were subject to regulatory impact analysis.

Since the BCA is a performance based Code, builders and designers have the option of meeting these standards in one of two ways:

by following the prescriptive "deemed-to-satisfy" provisions; or

by achieving the required house energy rating using an accredited software tool.

Official source: http://www.nathers.gov.au/