New home comfort rating system for Darwin homes

CSIRO and its project partners are holding a forum to launch a new home comfort rating system for Darwin residential building designs on Thursday, March 30.

The industry and community forum will include presentations, a home comfort rating demonstration and a “where to from here?” discussion opportunity. This will include field validation of house energy and comfort rating software by the University of Adelaide, development of comfort ratings by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and a live demonstration of comfort ratings achieved by different design approaches.

The Home Comfort Ratings have been built into a trial version of CSIRO’s accredited Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) software, AccuRate, and complement the current energy ratings used to demonstrate compliance with National Construction Code energy efficiency requirements.

Energy star ratings assess energy use when air conditioners are on. The new home comfort ratings assess the comfort of Darwin living room and bedroom designs when no air conditioning is being used.

This project was part of the Darwin Living Lab, established to foster improvements in the liveability, sustainability and resilience of the city. The Darwin Living Lab is an initiative under the Darwin City Deal and is a 10-year collaboration between CSIRO, the Australian Government, Northern Territory Government, and the City of Darwin.

The forum is free, and will be held at the Darwin Hilton, 32 Mitchell Street, Darwin, NT from 8–10am (ACST) on Thursday, March 30.  Register here or contact Stephen Cook for more information.