NECA Services - NECA Services - Technical-Regulations, Codes & Standards July/August 2016 Issue 3 86 It seems I have been travelling around this big nation a hell of a lot and everywhere I speak there is still an unnatural quiet when I ask “Who in this room has had a look at the Building Code of Australia?” I can hear crickets in the background! I guess I have been banging on about this opportunity since one of our customers in Cairns queried me on it in 2011. I chased it up and found that it has been mandatory for any residential electrician to follow since May 2011, much the same as it is to be followed by a chippie, brickie or plumber in the housing game. And here we are in 2016 with nothing much changed! The reason I keep harping on the subject is not just because it is mandatory but because it presents a great opportunity for your business in regard to Energy Efficiency. You would not be lying to your customer when you tell them that there are ways and means to improve energy efficiency and increase the value of their home just by having some smart and not-so- smart electrical devices fitted. Not only will it save them money on their electricity bills (and who doesn’t want that?), but will bring a better price for the home if ever they sell (and everyone wants that). Let’s start by explaining the Building Code and its goals. The Code has actually now been renamed as the National Construction Code (NCC) and it is a three volume set of books. Volume One for Commercial construction, Volume Two for Residential construction and Volume Three for Plumbing. The main goals are to provide a means of maintaining a consistent approach to the areas of health, safety, amenity and sustainability at a national level. Energy efficiency is a key to the sustainability aspect and this is aimed at reducing energy and greenhouse gas impacts in homes. The efficiency of the design is rated using one to ten stars. New homes are generally supposed to be designed at a six star rating. How is this measured? Well there is a software program (NatHERS) used by accredited assessors to determine the number of stars that a home design would receive. It is based on specific climate zones and the location, layout, construction type, orientation of windows, shading, local wind direction, occupancy and dimensions of the house. A zero star rated home means that there is the shell of a house that does nothing to protect against the discomfort of hot and cold weather, much like the swag example that I use in my talks. A ten star rated home is unlikely to need any artificial THE NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION CODE AND THE CONTRACTOR
It seems I have been travelling around this big nation a hell of a lot and everywhere I speak there is still an unnatural quiet when I ask “Who in this room has had a look at the Building Code of Australia?” I can hear crickets in the background! I guess I have been banging on about this opportunity since one of our customers in Cairns queried me on it in 2011. I chased it up and found that it has been mandatory for any residential electrician to follow since May 2011, much the same as it is to be followed by a chippie, brickie or plumber in the housing game. And here we are in 2016 with nothing much changed!The reason I keep harping on the subject is not just because it is mandatory but because it presents a great opportunity for your business in regard to Energy Efficiency. You would not be lying to your customer when you tell them that there are ways and means to improve energy efficiency and increase the value of their home just by having some smart and not-so-smart electrical devices fitted.Not only will it save them money on their electricity bills (and who doesn’t want that?), but will bring a better price for the home if ever they sell (and everyone wants that).Let’s start by explaining the Building Code and its goals. The Code has actually now been renamed as the National Construction Code (NCC) and it is a three volume set of books. Volume One for Commercial construction,
Volume Two for Residential construction and Volume Three for Plumbing.The main goals are to provide a means of maintaining a consistent approach to the areas of health, safety, amenity and sustainability at a national level. Energy efficiency is a key to the sustainability aspect and this is aimed at reducing energy and greenhouse gas impacts in homes. The efficiency of the design is rated using one to ten stars. New homes are generally supposed to be designed at a six star rating.
How is this measured? Well there
is a software program (NatHERS) used by accredited assessors to determine the number of stars that a home design would receive. It is based on specific climate zones and the location, layout, construction type, orientation of windows, shading, local wind direction, occupancy
and dimensions of the house.
A zero star rated home means that there is the shell of a house that does nothing to protect against the discomfort of hot and cold weather, much like the swag example that I use in my talks. A ten star rated home is unlikely to need any artificial
THE NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION CODE AND THE CONTRACTOR
87July/August 2016 Issue 3
cooling or heating at all. This is based on maximum energy consumption per unit area (MJ/m2) loads. This is not particularly what you, as the
electrician, need to know about but a little explanation can provide
some idea of what these boffins are providing.
The program sets the climate zones based around post codes and I will
use a few examples. Adelaide is climate zone 16, Port Hedland is climate zone 2 and Mascot is climate zone 56. By using these climate zones and the amount of energy consumed to heat and cool the home a star rating can be assigned. For example:
A 0.5 star rated home: in Adelaide uses 584 MJ/m2, in Port Hedland uses 643 MJ/m2, in Mascot uses 352 MJ/m2.
A six star rated home: in Adelaide uses 96 MJ/m2, in Port Hedland uses 215 MJ/m2, in Mascot uses 51 MJ/m2.
A ten star rated home: in Adelaide uses 3 MJ/m2, in Port Hedland uses 62 MJ/m2, in Mascot uses 5 MJ/m2.
To put it in context, houses built around 1990 average around one star and before 2003 less than
one percent of houses achieved six stars.
Fortunately all that is directed at the home designer, so this is where the electrician
comes in. During the life of a building there are numerous hot water systems, lights
and appliances installed and maintained and as such the energy consumption from these are not included in the rating program. Household energy usage can be attributed to heating and
cooling (around 40%), water heating (around 20%), appliances including
refrigerators and cookers (around 30%) and lighting (around 6%). You can see that if
some of these energy consumers are dealt with appropriately then there are
huge savings for your customer.
The specifics of the energy efficiency measures are
listed in the NCC, but here is a guide to
what is required.
With heating and cooling it is as simple as using a system that is zoned or space heating and cooling only in the rooms that require it. The installations of fans provide a very cost
effective means of cooling.
Of course evaporative coolers are fantastic at cost savings in areas of low humidity.
Lighting energy costs can definitely be reduced by taking into account the various factors as listed in the NCC and designing the lighting in an efficient manner. Maximising the use of natural light helps in a big way. The use of control devices such as dimmers, timers, motion sensors and daylight sensors will ensure that the lighting design is most efficient. But you must
consider other issues such as lamp technologies, safety requirements and life cycle costs to balance this out.
Increasingly energy usage can be attributed to home entertainment and home office equipment because of the standby power mode that most slip into when not in use. It used to be an On/Off switch but now everything needs to be ready at our beck and call. This standby power could attribute up to 10% of the homes energy consumption.
For this reason the ultimate way to reduce energy consumption is to automate or remotely control appliances by turning Off and On and adjusting operating settings. This automation can be teamed up with smart phones and the like to further improve the energy efficiency of the home.
Another means to increase the efficiency would be to have solar power systems (or even wind generation) installed in the home. Effective renewable energy and its free. Well not the system costs themselves but the sun and wind.
Then to top it off, the installation of energy monitoring systems from a simple monitor for the electricity usage as a whole home, to the most complex systems that monitor electricity, gas and water. Any opportunity for your customer to be able to see where the energy is being used and then to adapt habits to reduce usage are always welcome. While this is only a recommendation for residential, there is a huge opportunity with the energy efficient minded customers to provide this option.
Whether adding to an existing installation or in a new installation the electrician is well-placed to direct the customer to an energy efficient option. This should be beneficial to both yourself and the customer. The electrician because opportunity has enabled an up-sell and the customer because they can now reap some rewards in regard to a reduction in energy costs.
And to finish off, some good news in that the NCC Volumes are now offered free of charge as a download. Check it out at www.abcb.gov.au, register your name and you will get free access to the NCC. No longer can there be an excuse that it is costly and difficult to get your hands on. The Energy Efficiency section is all on its own and not difficult to understand. So get yourself a copy, study up and just possibly this may be as important to you as the Wiring Rules!
