Six stars for SA's new green homes

Independent Weekly
Friday 30/4/2010 Page: 2

South Australia's homes will be more energy-efficient from the start of September but the improvement will come at a cost to housing affordability. Minister for Urban Development Paul Holloway announced last week that all homes built from September onwards would need to meet six-star energy-efficiency requirements.

The Department of Planning expects the change in rating will decrease energy use for heating and cooling by more than 20% for each house. Most of those in the construction and design industry have welcomed the change. "It's really up to the industry to embrace this because it's all about being energy-efficient and building better houses," said Master Builders Association CEO Robert Stewart.

Architect Nicholas Ingerson said achieving six-star rating was easy if good design principles were followed. "It starts right at the beginning when you think about design. "You have to consider the orientation of the house, the location of the windows, the materials, and only then can you consider using high-performance external measures for the roof and windows," he said. "The best possible performance rating would be 25 stars, so that puts what we're trying to achieve in perspective."

However, the Housing Industry Association is disappointed the Government has concentrated reforms on the new housing sector. "Whenever the Government looks at regulations, they look at new homes rather than spreading it across the housing community," said SA branch executive director Robert Harding. "The most significant impact on the environment is a result of established homes, so if we're being serious they need to be addressed, too."

Mr Harding is worried achieving six-star rating in new homes will be costly for home-builders. "We are very quickly moving to a situation where project homes won't be able to be used because every house will have different efficiency needs, depending on its location and orientation. That will put the price up," he said. The new energy-efficiency requirements come at a time when the housing industry is also dealing with new bushfire regulations and facing likely changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

"All of these add significant cost to building new houses and at the same time we have the state telling us we're not building enough affordable houses for the population," said Mr Harding. Mr Holloway said the building industry was given early warning to help it prepare for the changes, which would ultimately save money. "In the long term, these changes will translate into up to $340 a year in savings for homeowners as they reduce their heating and cooling costs through lower energy consumption," he said.