Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 18, 2015 2:48 pm Hey there.. contracts next week.. but my inspector says this is rubbish "Provide 6 Star Energy Upgrade to Monterey Nouveau master floorplan RIGHT hand for SOUTH facing facade orientation. Includes R2.5 external wall bats and R6.0 ceiling batts to house and garage, $2060" Certainly sounds like rubbish to me!!!! I'm paying for double glazing and eaves to assist with energy.. this just seems like a complete farce! Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 3Jul 18, 2015 11:57 pm Hello Yes, I was also charged extra to reach 6 star energy rating. Now days this is standard for most builders and new estates. They assess your home based on a variety of factors, such as the orientation of the home (south and north facing are not ideal), number of windows, insulation, slab type (waffle is more energy efficient than a raft), etc etc. We are building the Monaco Lux Q2... North Facing and have double glazing throughout all the windows in home (except any non standard windows), solar hot water and a raft slab. We had to upgrade R2.5 to all walls, and R6.0 to ceilings plus double glazing to our non standing windows (we upgraded 2 windows to wider ones) - $2383. Monaco Lux Q2 Thread 6/12/14 - Signed Land Contract 26/6/15 - Land Settlement 3/8/15 - House Contract 7/9/15 - Site Commences 30/9/15 - Base 28/10/15 - Frame 25/11/15 - Fixing/LockUp March 16 ~ NHP Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 4Jul 18, 2015 11:58 pm Dreamz9 Hi I was charged $360 to upgrade my wall to R2.5 and ceiling to R4. I too had double glazing on all windows. So inexpensive in comparison! Lucky! What way is your house facing? Monaco Lux Q2 Thread 6/12/14 - Signed Land Contract 26/6/15 - Land Settlement 3/8/15 - House Contract 7/9/15 - Site Commences 30/9/15 - Base 28/10/15 - Frame 25/11/15 - Fixing/LockUp March 16 ~ NHP Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 6Jul 19, 2015 12:02 am adrianaa Dreamz9 Hi I was charged $360 to upgrade my wall to R2.5 and ceiling to R4. I too had double glazing on all windows. So inexpensive in comparison! Lucky! What way is your house facing? Hows your house going ? Has it started yet ? Glad to see someone building same house as us. Building Monaco Q2 with Henley in Wollert Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 7Jul 19, 2015 1:48 am Aren't all new homes supposed to be six star as a standard by law these days? Or is my understanding of this requirement flawed? Creator of superduperonium, expert at expert things, nobel laureate, can hold my breath for 10 minutes. Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 8Jul 19, 2015 2:47 am Yes, all houses have to be six star. However, if your house is not really designed for the block (e.g. windows too big, or too many windows facing east or west, or living zone windows not facing north) then the same house on different blocks can end up having a different energy rating and the builder has to make changes to reach six stars. It's a shame builders don't market their houses with a 'best orientation for 6 star' recommendation. For example, my block runs east/west, so best to have living areas on one side of the house - the north facing side, as far as possible. Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 9Jul 19, 2015 10:32 am Seems counter intuitive to have a "standard" and then charge people for that standard. My current house is 7 star off the plan, and upgrades were not needed to be paid for to bring it up to 7 star on the block. Wondering if consumer have recourse to argue an upgrade cost given that australian standards need to be met everywhere else by builders and manufacturers without aditional costs to the consumer. Creator of superduperonium, expert at expert things, nobel laureate, can hold my breath for 10 minutes. Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 10Jul 19, 2015 4:43 pm I was going to upgrade my insulation and my tender presenter asked me not to until the energy rating was done , subsequently i ended up with r6.0 in ceilings and r2.0 in exterior walls at no extra cost , builder is Carlisle homes . Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 11Jul 19, 2015 6:54 pm Hi Klubear, I agree with you and your inspector. The Henley Clendonvale inclusions clearly state on Page 1 "Don’t pay extra for the best performing orientation, our base plans have a 6 Star energy rating." Any reasonable person reading this would conclude that as long as you haven't changed their base plan they shouldn't be charging you extra for a 6 star energy rating. Cheers, Logician BLOG : http://balwyn196.blogspot.com.au Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 12Jul 19, 2015 7:14 pm Logician Hi Klubear, Any reasonable person reading this would conclude that as long as you haven't changed their base plan they shouldn't be charging you extra for a 6 star energy rating. This. I had to have a fan installed in my out door area to get my house to 6 star rating. The reason was I removed the solar system they were going to install, which was worth 1.5points. I gained some by upgrading the insulation but still needed a bit more. I had to pay for it as I removed a standard item that made up part of the rating. So go over what changes you made and see if you removed something that provides rating, such as solar. My Noosa 23 Build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72782 Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 13Jul 20, 2015 2:30 pm Logician Hi Klubear, I agree with you and your inspector. The Henley Clendonvale inclusions clearly state on Page 1 "Don’t pay extra for the best performing orientation, our base plans have a 6 Star energy rating." Any reasonable person reading this would conclude that as long as you haven't changed their base plan they shouldn't be charging you extra for a 6 star energy rating. Thankyou Logician, That is a perfect sentence to quote when I refuse to pay for it!!! Karl (building inspector) is doing some more research, but it seems that Henley is the only company to be charging this? Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 14Jul 20, 2015 2:32 pm Ponzu Seems counter intuitive to have a "standard" and then charge people for that standard. My current house is 7 star off the plan, and upgrades were not needed to be paid for to bring it up to 7 star on the block. Wondering if consumer have recourse to argue an upgrade cost given that australian standards need to be met everywhere else by builders and manufacturers without aditional costs to the consumer. EXACTLY!!! This is what Karl was explaining to me.. I do plan on arguing the point.. I don't know where it will get me since it took me a month for them to agree they shouldn't be charging me $760 to NOT stain my alfresco doors! sheeeesh! Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 15Jul 20, 2015 3:32 pm It all depends on the changes you make to the standard floor plan. We flipped ours Changed a bedroom window size Changed stacker door size Extended two bedrooms Extended the garage Added doors to rooms Added more down lights Added heating vents These things all affect the rating. After all these changes we had to make get some extra insulation but it was only and extra $105 Have you made any or many changes to the standard plan? Yours seems Like a pretty big charge - we are also building with henley. Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 16Jul 20, 2015 4:05 pm jessicana10 It all depends on the changes you make to the standard floor plan. We flipped ours Changed a bedroom window size Changed stacker door size Extended two bedrooms Extended the garage Added doors to rooms Added more down lights Added heating vents These things all affect the rating. After all these changes we had to make get some extra insulation but it was only and extra $105 Have you made any or many changes to the standard plan? Yours seems Like a pretty big charge - we are also building with henley. The only change is to the Living room window, instead of two 90 x 180 I have on 240 x 180. BUT - this charge was already on the quote prior to my tender appointment changing window. I was told at that stage, the double glazing and eaves had not yet been taken into account. Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 17Jul 20, 2015 11:06 pm Dreamz9 adrianaa Dreamz9 Hi I was charged $360 to upgrade my wall to R2.5 and ceiling to R4. I too had double glazing on all windows. So inexpensive in comparison! Lucky! What way is your house facing? Hows your house going ? Has it started yet ? Glad to see someone building same house as us. Woohoo to the Monaco family!! Yeah I've following your thread... your house is coming along nicely! No, not yet... contract is in 2 weeks, so looking at building to commence 6-8 weeks. I still can't believe how cheap it was for you to upgrade the energy rating and you are facing North/East! Monaco Lux Q2 Thread 6/12/14 - Signed Land Contract 26/6/15 - Land Settlement 3/8/15 - House Contract 7/9/15 - Site Commences 30/9/15 - Base 28/10/15 - Frame 25/11/15 - Fixing/LockUp March 16 ~ NHP Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 18Aug 04, 2015 6:00 pm OK.. so a run down of why my energy rating suffered. Adding eaves throughout has reduced the score significantly as there is now more shading added to the home and especially to the top section of the windows. The addition of the extra sliding door to the Alfresco has significantly reduced the energy as there is now an additional large area of glass which is in almost constant shade, increasing the potential heat loss through the glass. Increasing the ceiling height has reduced the rating as there is now a larger area that needs to be heated/cooled. .. when they agreed to do an assessment (why they had not already done so I can't understand) ... it added on another $300!! I spat the dummy./.told them to shove their contract., All of a sudden they were able to alter my site fees saving $10700!!! Contracts are now signed.. here we go!!!! Re: Has anyone experienced charges to Upgrade Energy Rating? 20Aug 04, 2015 6:59 pm That is just bizzare! Was that $10,700 part of provisional site costs? Monaco Lux Q2 Thread 6/12/14 - Signed Land Contract 26/6/15 - Land Settlement 3/8/15 - House Contract 7/9/15 - Site Commences 30/9/15 - Base 28/10/15 - Frame 25/11/15 - Fixing/LockUp March 16 ~ NHP 10 years ago was a different software than we use now. it has had a lot of changes over the past years. Improvments to the software and changes to how Nathers models need… 8 1504 Unless there were unforeseeable issues with the site, I dont think you should have to pay for contractors errors or poor planning. 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