Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
Thesis Abstract
Climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is the most important social, economic and environmental challenge of this era. Increasing the energy and carbon efficiency of homes has been at the forefront of climate change policy for many nations. In Australia, various levels of government have used building or planning regulatory instruments to reduce the impact of new buildings.
Improving the thermal efficiency of Australian homes has been a relatively recent policy direction with minimum energy efficiency standards introduced in Building Code of Australia at 4 stars in 2003, 5 stars in 2006 and 6 stars in 2010. Although not yet reflecting international best regulatory practice for building type and climate, these performance levels represent substantial progress in addressing the energy and carbon impact of new homes.
The concepts of net zero carbon or net zero energy homes have entered the international policy debate. These concepts embrace levels of energy efficiency and local renewable energy production significantly above that incorporated in Australian building energy regulation.
International research into zero carbon and zero energy homes is not easily transposable to Australian climates and built form. Domestic research has been focussed around simple building energy and economic models that fail to take into account the complexities of human behaviour, the digital appliance age, contemporary lifestyles and a changing climate.
The proposed research program investigates the validity of the concept of net zero carbon homes in the Australian context of local climate and energy economics by exploring the technical and economic feasibility of utilising energy efficient technologies, low carbon energy systems and locally generated renewable energy to achieve a net zero carbon performance. Uniquely, empirical evidence of energy performance of households at Lochiel Park, South Australia will be used to validate the building energy model.
The economic costs and benefits associated with the proposed standard will be explored to test the economic feasibility of establishing net zero carbon as the minimum energy performance requirement in the Building Code of Australia and other regulatory instruments.
The proposed research project will develop the evidence needed to inform the national climate change mitigation debate on the potential to significantly improve the energy and carbon performance of Australian homes and to address the technical and social barriers associated with net zero carbon housing.
