4 Tips to 6 Star’s in Australia

People often ask me, how do you get houses to rate with 6 stars that other assessors would struggle to get to 4 or 5 stars? There are some very basic steps to getting a 6 Star rating with any house, in any orientation which I will outline for you below. This information would be considered by us to be a bit extreme but works with all types of construction materials and is generalised in nature so will work with any proposed building works throughout Australia.

1. Don’t have large expanses of glazing if you’re not prepared to put in a bit of cavity wall insulation or upgrade the ceiling insulation. To have a house comply without upgrades limit the window size to 17.5% of the floor area.

2. Insulating internal walls when using steel or timber framed construction offers great improvements in energy efficiency. Exactly how much to use depends on the project, its shape and orientation.

3. If possible, use a window that has been WERS rated. This will allow your energy assessor to nominate it when doing their assessment and will avoid them having to use broad based “generic” windows.

4. Increasing the insulation to walls and ceilings offers comparatively cheaper improvements which significantly improve the buildings rating.

Next week I will be giving my top 10 tips on how to achieve 6 star ratings on houses in WA. This guide will give you a solid grounding in how to design your next project to easily get 6 stars, 7 stars or even 10 stars.

Click HERE to email our draftsperson, energy assessor or building surveyor if you have any questions about the process or would like to discuss your project.

Thanks for reading!

Due to constantly evolving legislation the information provided within this blog may no longer be valid. The advice given on this site is general in nature and does not take into account your specific circumstances. Please email one of our building surveyors to check what is right for you.