New science

Recent Developments

July 2017 Caution advised: NatHERS tools unsuitable for the NCC reference building Verification Method V2.6.2.2 The National Construction Code includes […]

The history of energy rating

In 1953 Roy Muncey of CSIRO’s Division of Building Research published a paper in the Australian Journal of Applied Science […]

2016, June: Air infiltration modelling

Air infiltration modelling Air infiltration is the unintended flow of air into a building through the cracks in the structure […]

2016, June: Measuring buildings – Air-tightness of new house construction

How well houses are sealed against air leakage can have a significant impact on their energy efficiency. Until now, little […]

The CSIRO Energy Rating Team

Chenath is the product of a team of people with many decades’ experience in CSIRO’s building energy rating work. The […]

2016, June: What is being designed?

With the Certificate data stored in the Hstar portal, CSIRO is able to extract building data to understand what is […]

HStar Portal updates

The HStar portal was developed for CSIRO by a software developer who hosted the portal  until July 2015. The maintenance […]

Newsletters

Energy Rating News_August 2018

2018, March: A design tool for off-grid housing in Australia

By Zhengen Ren, WanYee Chan, Dong Chen and Phillip Paevere Over the past 16 years in Australia, electricity prices for […]

2018, March: Impact analysis of thermal comfort on residential energy use

By Zhengen Ren and Dong Chen Our warming climate increases the challenge for building designers to provide thermal comfort at […]

2017, July: What is being built?

We’ve compiled data from houses rated in the past year using AccuRate and BERSpro to illustrate the insulation levels used […]

Portal updates July 2017

The HStar portal is the website that provides Universal Certificates for AccuRate and BERSPro.  Universal Certificates are produced by NatHERS […]

Profile: Michael Ambrose, Senior Experimental Scientist

Michael joined CSIRO in 1992 and is a senior experimental scientist in CSIRO’s Land and Water. He leads projects for […]

2017, July: Retrofits vs behaviour change – investigation wins best paper

Two of the CSIRO Energy Rating team, Melissa James and Michael Ambrose won the Best Paper Award at the International […]

2017, July: Thermal resistance of waffle pod slabs

Dr Dong Chen has investigated the Thermal Resistance of Waffle Pod Slabs – Pods with Air Cavities to identify the […]

About CSIRO’s energy rating research

How much royalty income is CSIRO receiving and what are we doing with it?

Chenath Revenue In June 2016 the final components of the fee-per-certificate scheme were implemented with BERS Pro accredited and contributing […]

2016, December: What is being built?

The following graphs show the distribution of ratings by state for new Class 1 dwellings rated between 1 January 2015 […]

Portal updates December 2016

The online HStar portal is the website that produces the Universal Certificate that is accepted as evidence a house design […]

Portal updates June 2016

The H Star portal was developed for CSIRO by a software developer who hosted the portal  until July 2015. The […]

Profile: Dr Dong Chen, Principal Research Scientist

With the background in mechanical and chemical engineering, Dong’s research interests are in the physical and numerical modelling of building […]

2016, December: Analysis of three models on air infiltration for residential building energy simulation

The majority of residential buildings worldwide are ventilated through natural ventilation, infiltration and exhaust fans. Up to 30% of space […]