6 * rating

Hi all,

I heard that after May we need to have 6 start energy rating for all the homes.
How do you all are achieving 6 * energy rating.
Please advice

Thanks in advance

Srini

Double glazing, but be careful, your builder may only doubleglaze one window to achieve that!
And external wall insulation...1000 bucks for 22sq house for r2.0 bats, totally worth it!
Ours will be 7 star, but it also is dependant on orientation of the house, (which you cant do anything about due to your block) window coverings, ie curtains
which we will get after

There are some better posters on here who will advise you better, but this is just from little ol' me and my 7 star house lol!
Pos

No idea but we have 6 star already. Is this a state-wide building regulation or just in the state you are in?

in WA, 6 * is not mandatory until next year

Oh okay.

Good orientation and reducing window size on south facing walls should do it for a new house

[quote="CC101"]in WA, 6 * is not mandatory until next year[/quote]

In Vic we must be 6 from may this yr

Mine has no double glazed windows and my windows (South size) are huge (almost full wall height and takes up almost the whole horizontally).

On the Northern side, it's mostly half size windows.

However, i got 6 stars!

Maybe the insulation batts made a big difference.

The energy rating for ones house is dependent on the following factors:-
1. Orientation of the house.
2. Insulation used in internal walls and it's type.
3. Windows size and double glazing helps a lot.
4. Placement of all the windows throughout the house so that it helps well in cross ventilation.

My house has got an energy rating of 7.5. With all of the above and in addition to that I have gas boosted solar hot water. Heating is through gas. Recycle water ( it is mandatory in my estate). I got 9feet ceiling and ceiling fans installed in the house which consumes less electricity as compared to any other cooling device and also does not give out any gases bad for the environment. My roof pitch is also 25.5 degree. Hope this points help

Something that a lot of builders in Perth are looking at is a product called Permicav

http://www.kingspaninsulation.com.au/Pr ... rview.aspx

Its looking like the most cost efficient way to do it, the only 2 possible problems are
1) Getting your Brickies (possibly the most sensitive trade around) to install it
2) Storing it on site, as a roll takes up a fair amount of space.

Basically, the product is permiated, so it won't allow condensation transfur (it can "breathe") and it will increase the "R" value of your external walls from 0.6 to 2.1. Estimates at saving a possible 10% on your energy bill.

Thats all that I really know about the product.
One thing is for sure... The cost WILL be passed onto the client, however we all will benefit in the long run.

when does NSW become 6*?

Air cell is good. However it has a similar effect to Silver Foil and batts.

The product I linked above isn't really "aircell" though. It is done by the same people, however as the product is now being used in cavities, it needs to be "permiable" or, have little holes in it in order to allow the product to breathe. Aircell doesn't allow that, because it is litterally pockets of air on a sheet. For that reason, while is does have a similar effect, it won't allow moisture transfur, which can potentially damage internal walls/plaster/etc.

To achieve 6* we have...
Double glazed windows throughout
600mm eaves
Insulation throughout - R3.5 to ceilings, R2.0 to external walls & R1.5 to internal walls
50mm blanket insulation under roof sheets

Gees, I reckon that should be higher than 6!! That's amazing. You know, when we got our rating back, they didn't make note of the double glazing and the orientation of the house was incorrect, and the forgot the 2.0 batts externally. We had to resubmit it twice, as the rater forgot the double glazing again!
So we went from 6 to 7 stars when all the errors were corrected. they had all the info supplied, they just didn't look at it!!!

There was an article in The Age on the weekend (Sundays Age 15th May) where they some guy using a thermal camera was able to show that despite houses being designed for six star rating, because of the way insulation etc was installed (not properly, gaps left and so on) the real life star rating of the homes were well below six stars.

Makes you wonder.

We have 600mm eaves, but due to us extending our alfresco out 2m, we only got a 5.4* rating because there is not as much light going into the living area.. Lucky they haven't brought it in yet!

Ours has a rating of 6.4, that's what it shows on the final construction plans

http://www.nathers.gov.au/eer/index.html

What is rated?

A dwelling can be rated before or after it is built. The rating depends on:

the layout of the home
the construction of its roof, walls, windows and floor
the orientation of windows and shading to the sun's path and local breezes
how well these suit the local climate.

Energy consumption by hot water systems, lights or household appliances is not part of the rating because those fittings are usually replaced several times during the life of the building.

Word has it downlights reduce the raiting.. in the PD homes building thread there is a client there that mentioned he was not allowed to install downlights and had to go for batterns..