New science

The majority of residential buildings worldwide are ventilated through natural ventilation, infiltration and exhaust fans. Up to 30% of space heating and cooling load are due to air infiltration. Air infiltration is a nonlinear phenomenon which is dependent on the air leakage of the building envelope and the weather-driving forces (wind and indoor-outdoor temperature difference). […]

The following graphs show the distribution of ratings by state for new Class 1 dwellings rated between 1 January 2015 and 29 August 2016 with AccuRate and from 27 April 2016 to 29 August 2016 with BERSpro. In these periods there have been a total of 25,488 ratings completed for new Class 1 dwellings using […]

Dr Dong Chen has investigated the Thermal Resistance of Waffle Pod Slabs – Pods with Air Cavities to identify the most appropriate method to model their performance. Recently, the thermal resistance for waffle pod slab constructions with pod heights at 170mm, 230mm, 300mm and 370mm respectively were investigated considering air cavities in the polystyrene pods. […]

Two of the CSIRO Energy Rating team, Melissa James and Michael Ambrose won the Best Paper Award at the International High-Performance Built Environments Conference, held in Sydney in November 2016. Their paper “Retrofit or behaviour change? Which has the greater impact on energy consumption in low income households?” presented the results of a randomised control […]

We’ve compiled data from houses rated in the past year using AccuRate and BERSpro to illustrate the insulation levels used in ceilings and walls and the types of glazing installed in each State. This data is available in an interactive chart – click through to see more.

By Zhengen Ren and Dong Chen Our warming climate increases the challenge for building designers to provide thermal comfort at minimum energy costs. The acceptable range for indoor temperatures is determined by the comfort temperature band within which the great majority of people are adequately comfortable. Generally speaking, for space heating and cooling less energy […]

By Zhengen Ren, WanYee Chan, Dong Chen and Phillip Paevere Over the past 16 years in Australia, electricity prices for households have increased at an average annual rate of 8 per cent while the average inflation rate is around 2.8 per cent. This has put a financial strain on households across Australia. With the recent […]

With the Certificate data stored in the Hstar portal, CSIRO is able to extract building data to understand what is being designed.  As time goes by a more complete data set will be available, however, we have a few interesting facts from the initial data collected over the past 12 months from over 24,000 ratings […]

How well houses are sealed against air leakage can have a significant impact on their energy efficiency. Until now, little data has been collected on newly built houses to quantify their air-tightness. CSIRO has recently completed a project to quantify the air-tightness of current housing construction around Australia. Results were mixed, however, the average air […]

Air infiltration modelling Air infiltration is the unintended flow of air into a building through the cracks in the structure due to pressure differences across the building envelop caused by wind and stack effects resulting from the inside-outside temperature difference, and internal mechanical ventilation systems. With the improvements of window products and building insulation, air […]