This article is a beginners guide to Thermal Performance Assessments. So if you need to know "What is Thermal Performance?" specifically the thermal performance of buildings, than you've come to the right place. Lets begin

Tips and Tricks to implement within your household to help reduce your carbon footprint and live a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle! 

Want to learn more about optimising the thermal comfort of your project? Read below to learn the basics regarding the Thermal Mass capabilities in certain  building materials! 

NatHERS, (or Nationalwide House Energy Rating Scheme), provides a rating system to determine the thermal comfort of Australian homes through software simulations. This system rates from zero to ten stars. The more stars a home gets the more comfortable the occupants will feel when living in the house/unit without additional cooling or heating systems. A building is unlikely to need any artificial heating or cooling system if it gets a 10 star rating.

Getting a BESS statement can be a drawn out and frustrating experience with councils. To get a BESS statement requires a variety of factors such as management, water, energy, stormwater, Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ), transport, waste, urban ecology and innovation. With IEQ being weighted at 16.5% towards BESS certification, here are four ways where you can improve the Indoor Environment Quality of your next commercial or residential project, while being one step closer toward BESS certification:

Updated context: This article refers to a NatHERS Technical Note update from 2019. NatHERS requirements, software tools and residential energy efficiency settings have continued to evolve since then, including the later shift toward 7 Star NatHERS and Whole of Home energy performance under NCC 2022. For current NatHERS assessment guidance, start with our NatHERS Knowledge Hub.

The 2019 NatHERS Technical Note update introduced more detailed modelling requirements for property developers, builders, assessors and designers. At the time, the update raised an important question: would the new requirements support clearer residential energy assessments, or create additional pressure during the building design process?

The Problem with Windows. 

Windows can have a drastic effect on the thermal performance of a building. Up to 40% of a home’s heat can be lost through conduction or radiation at the window, and up to 87% of its heat can enter through solar gain. This unwanted heat flow can be devastating for the energy efficiency of any project.

It is important that designers modify their designs in relation to the climate in which they are built in. In order for the occupants of a home to remain thermally comfortable, the design must work with the climate, not against it, decreasing the need to use heating and cooling systems.