Home energy advice for 'Whole of Home' Star Rating

Introduction

Contact Hydrosol for home energy advice for your new building project. Explore options to improve your thermal performance Star Rating and ‘Whole of Home” energy assessment. This includes choices for your building design and energy-efficient appliances.

It is now a requirement of the National Construction Code (NCC) in Australia to have thermal performance of at least 7 Stars and a ‘Whole of Home’ rating of at least 60%. Advice at the design stage will assist you to:

Determine your most cost-effective options
Ensure compliance with the NCC
Save time and money with your Star Rating assessment

There are many new electric technologies coming onto the market. Consideration of your own preferences and budget is important too. Therefore, we take a holistic approach to help you determine your needs and hence your design.

Advice Covers

Contact Hydrosol for advice covering the following:

Thermal performance of your home
Heating, cooling and water heating options
Pool heating options if relevant
Other plug-in appliance options
Solar power and battery storage
Referrals for supply and installation

For existing homes, we can develop a plan with indicative pricing and time line that fits with your budget and needs. This could possibly run over several years as your family budget allows.

Project Type

Hydrosol’s advice is tailored to your project type including the following:

A new building offers the greatest scope for high performance design.
Renovations provide scope to fix thermal performance issues with your existing house.
Going off gas requires an estimation of your heat load to ensure that replacing gas appliances with electrical appliances will work for you.
Going off grid requires the most careful evaluation. This is becoming more popular thanks to new electric technologies in power generation and electric appliances.
A Staged Plan over time is a great approach if you have budget constraints.

Add value to your house by improving thermal performance, installing solar power and switching to electric heating, cooling and hot water.

Climate

Consider hydronic heating and cooling with solar power if you live in a cool temperate climate with cold winters and dry summers. This is the typical climate of Southern and inland Australia.

Rea more: cool temperate zone heating

Hydronic Heat Pumps

Hydronic heat pumps provide heating and cooling (in reverse cycle) using water to move thermal energy to your rooms. This is an efficient way to do it because water is 3,300 times more effective at transferring heat than air.

Run your heat pump/s with solar power during the day and store thermal energy in the mass inside your home. This is more effective with underfloor heating. The stored heat will re-radiate back into your rooms over night.

Hydronic heating and cooling offers these advantages:

Ideal for all-electric homes
Ideal for cool temperate climate
Low operating costs solar power
Lower greenhouse emissions
Allergen and dust free
Most comfortable radiant heat
Cooling in reverse cycle with a heat pump
Adds value to your house
Silent

Air Conditioning

Air conditioners are a cost effective, all-electric means of heating & cooling using your solar power. Choose between Split, Multi-Split, VRV/VRF and Ducted systems depending on your needs, budget and house design.

Consider combining air-conditioners in bedrooms with radiant hydronic heating and reverse cycle cooling in living spaces.

Ventilation

Consider how you will ventilate your energy efficient home.

Older homes are notoriously leaky and inefficient with high heat loss. But at least, they have good natural ventilation.

On the other hand, modern homes are quite airtight, making them more efficient but could lead to an unhealthy home with inadequate ventilation.

Install a Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) system if your house is very air tight with energy rating above 7 Stars. These system ventilate your home with windows closed, reducing heat loss.

Solar Power

Combine your heat pump or air conditioner with solar power to reduce your operating costs and greenhouse emissions.

Batteries

Install a house battery to absorb excess solar power during the day for use at night. Take advantage of government incentives that reduce cost.

Weigh up whether a house battery or possibly a future electric vehicle may be a better option for you.

Ceiling Fans

Install ceiling fans to improve your hydronic heating and cooling system. Fans in winter mode will slowly recirculate rising heat reducing your heating costs by around 15%.

Fans in summer mode will make you feel about 4 degrees cooler. Therefore, you can increase your inside set temperature to reduce your heating costs.

Supplementary Heating

Consider supplementary heating sources. If you have low cost access to firewood then fireplace wetbacks may make sense. These are water jackets installed inside a firebox or around a chimney flue. They provide supplementary heat to the buffer tank when heat is available.

Open windows when opportune:

During summer evenings, this will cool and ventilate your home.
During winter afternoons, some days will heat and ventilate your home.

A heat pump will compensate for variable heat sources by increasing or decreasing its heating or cooling automatically.

Holistic Assessment

Ask us for a holistic assessment of your needs and options including:

Maximum power assessment of existing and new appliances
Whether to add or upgrade your power supply, and type
Managing your solar power
House battery or EV
Thermal battery
Energy efficiency of your house
Advice and specifications of new HVAC and hot water appliances
Installation options
Site issues
Budget
Staged implementation plan
Qualified referrals to installers

Home Energy Advice