Its no surprise to anyone who has lived through a cold Southern Highlands winter that the minimum standards for Australian homes in our region is woefully inadequate for a house to be warm, comfortable, and have low energy bills.
Let alone houses that were built 10 years with an even lower minimum… and let alone houses built before 2003 when insulation was finally made mandatory!
The current minimum standard for thermal performance of a residential home in NSW is 7 stars under BASIX, and this aligns with a nationwide natHERS rating scheme and the NCC 2022.
BUT while 7 stars in northern NSW might be perfectly reasonable for home comfort it is very obvious not a good minimum for the cold Southern Highlands.
So what can you do about it?
If you’re building new then its crucial to design a home that will have high thermal performance to cope with cold Southern Highlands winters. This means good orientation and design, the right materials, high levels of insulation, efficient heating and cooling system choices, and attention to detail on air tightness during the build.
Consider getting natHERS model of your building design so you get the very best data on your future house’s thermal performance. NatHERS uses an advanced modelling engine by the CSIRO and is simulated on the local climate for all times of the year, hot and cold.
What about already built homes? This is lot more challenging as a lot of the elements that contribute to thermal performance have already been locked in… and making changes can be major work and cost.
But the good news is there are a huge number of upgrade and retrofit options available that will increase the thermal performance of your home. They can be wildly expensive like new double glazed window units, but they can also be very low cost and DIY friendly like gap sealing.
A thermal performance assessment
With so many options its best to start with a full thermal assessment of your home – this will first of all list the existing building elements and identify the thermal weak points. It will also cover your heating and cooling systems and overall energy use. It’s then possible to create a list of possible upgrades and retrofits – some can be simple and low cost, some will be well out of reach practically and financially!
Once you have a list you can prioritise the quickest and easiest changes… and maybe keep the harder or more expensive ones on the back burner.
The aim is to get your existing home to a point where you feel warm and comfortable year round, but especially on those frosty days. You will also be reducing your energy bills as the thermal performance of your house improves, and ultimately you’ll be creating less carbon emissions too.
Get in touch
If you’d like to find out more about going above the minimum standard for a new home, or making cost effective upgrades to your existing house, then Highlands Energy would love to hear from!