How do I cool down my home? Our 5 top tips to keep your home comfortable for summer

With the summer season now slowly winding up, it’s a good time to reflect on the thermal performance of your home from the past few months; 

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC)

Being conscious about the amount of raw materials used in building products is a key concept when trying to design efficiently, aiming to reduce the overall embodied energy of materials. Autoclaved Aerated Concrete or as it is more commonly known AAC, is an example of a building material that aims to reduce the overall raw material requirements whilst maintaining as many of the original product's structural and functional properties. This is achieved by creating air pockets within the concrete (aeration). These pockets of air have many benefits besides just reducing the amount of materials required to manufacture it.

The BASIX assessment and NatHERS process is an ever evolving practice which requires extensive knowledge of available materials, passive heating and cooling strategies and how to design in an ecologically sustainable manner. Although to complete and sign off on the BASIX process one must be a certified assessor. The assessor’s background does not play a large role in determining their competency in assessing a building’s efficiency. Therefore, the question is raised as to who is the most qualified or most knowledgeable to be completing the BASIX assessment?

In the field of ESD, two terms which constantly appear are the U and R values of products, but what do these mean? Whether referring to insulation or glazing each product on the market has a specific either U or R value. These values refer to the thermal performance of specific products and materials and how they assist in maintaining thermal control in a building or structure. These values are an integral part of the BASIX, NatHERS and Section J process in the NCC, which require specific values to be either entered into the glazing calculator for Section J reports or specific glazing types with predetermined U and SHGC values for BASIX and NatHERS along with specific R values for insulation and building materiality.

The NCC sets a minimum acceptable thermal performance for residential dwellings by specifying a minimum 6 star rating for all new projects in Australia with the exception of NSW who are under the BASIX programme.

What is a 6 Star Rating?

The National Construction Code (NCC formally known as the BCA) requires all new residential dwellings in Australia (Except NSW)* to achieve a minimum of a 6 Star Rating using the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), approved software.

NSW BASIX Regulation Update for Architects: