Glazing and shading are two of the most important design decisions in a sustainable home. Windows bring light, views, ventilation and connection to outside, but they can also create heat gain, heat loss, glare and comfort problems if they are not designed carefully.
Green Star Homes Performance Guide
Thermal comfort supports the performance and liveability of a Green Star Home, but it must be understood through the framework’s design, evidence and completed-home certification pathway rather than as a standalone sustainability claim.
Green Star Homes is a voluntary residential certification pathway structured for eligible volume home builders. It brings energy performance, indoor-environment considerations and climate resilience together across repeatable home designs and individual completed dwellings.
Thermal comfort is influenced by the way the home responds to heat, cold, solar exposure, air movement and changing outdoor conditions. Orientation, glazing, shading, insulation, construction systems, air leakage, ventilation and household services can all contribute to that response.
This guide focuses on how those inputs support the Green Star Homes framework. It does not replace the separate technical territory of NatHERS thermal assessment, Passive House certification or specialist Thermal Comfort Modelling.
A sustainable home in Australia is not defined by one product, appliance or rating alone. It is shaped by how the home responds to climate, how comfortable it feels, how much energy and water it uses, how healthy the indoor environment is and how well the home can adapt to future conditions.
Before lodging a Development Application or Complying Development Certificate in NSW, it is worth checking that the BASIX Certificate matches the plans, specifications and project details being submitted. BASIX is not just a form to attach at the end. It records the water, energy and thermal performance commitments that need to follow the project through approval, construction and final certification.
BASIX remains important at occupation certificate stage because the project needs to be built in accordance with the commitments shown on the BASIX Certificate. The certificate is not only a planning document. It follows the project through approval, construction and final certification.
BASIX does not stop being relevant once a Development Application or Complying Development Certificate has been lodged. For many NSW residential projects, BASIX becomes especially important again at construction certificate stage because the plans and specifications need to show how the BASIX commitments will actually be delivered.
A BASIX Certificate is valid for 3 months before it is submitted to council or an accredited certifier. This means the certificate should be lodged with the Development Application or Complying Development Certificate application within 3 months of being generated. If it is not lodged within that time, a new certificate will need to be generated and additional fees may apply.
Mixed use developments in NSW can require more than one energy or sustainability compliance pathway. If the project includes residential apartments or dwellings, BASIX will usually apply to the residential component. If the same building also includes retail, office, restaurant, commercial or other non-residential areas, those areas may require a separate NCC energy efficiency pathway such as Section J.
Apartment buildings and residential flat buildings in NSW generally need BASIX as part of the residential approval pathway. These projects can be more complex than single dwellings or townhouse rows because the assessment may need to include many apartments, different dwelling types, common areas, central services, lifts, shared gardens, car parks, pools, spas and building-wide energy and water systems.
Townhouses, villas and other multi dwelling housing projects in NSW generally need BASIX as part of the residential approval pathway. These projects can be more complex than a single dwelling because the assessment may need to account for multiple homes, different orientations, shared walls, common areas, central services, private gardens and shared infrastructure.
