Residential

Many Australians live in substandard housing, but what can we actually do to improve thermal performance and reduce our energy bills?

Geothermal cooling is relatively underdeveloped in Australia, but as Ecolibrium staff writer Nick Johns-Wickberg discovers, its potential is huge.

Ecolibrium staff writer Nick Johns-Wickberg explores how a mobile cooling hub in the Harbour City prevented three medical emergencies this summer past.

Designed by Elenberg Fraser 6 Charles Street, or C6, has been and is being developed by Grange Development. It primarily consists of residential apartments, although the plans also include a 500m2 edible rooftop garden and dining and entertainment spaces. Residents will also have access to a car-share scheme that includes 80 Tesla electric vehicles.

By embracing the Passivhaus standard, a new apartment building in Palma, Spain, classifies as an nZEB (nearly zero energy building).

The development of a sophisticated control system for an iconic home in Melbourne’s leafy suburbs has not only provided greater comfort to its occupants but broken new ground in predictive climate control systems. Sean McGowan reports on a house that has been home to four generations of the Featherston extended family, having evolved every step of the way.

In 2019, Australian energy ministers agreed on the need for the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings (the Trajectory). One of the key aspects in the Trajectory for residential buildings is to expand the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) to offer nationally accredited whole-of-home (WoH) tools to enable compliance requirements in the National Construction Code (NCC).

District heating and cooling could offer an important pathway to decarbonisation – and one of the biggest barriers to its uptake might simply be our mindset, writes Mark Vender.

In the future, many Australian HVAC systems may be required to deal with harsher environmental conditions due to more extreme climatic conditions and a push to increase population centres in more northern and central regions of the country.

Challenged by site constraints, award-winning architect, builder and developer Oliver Steele pivoted an apartment project to Passivhaus design. As Sean McGowan reports, the decision led to a first in the southern hemisphere.

With an ever-growing list of successful projects around the country, Passivhaus has shown to be as effective in Australian climates as has been proven elsewhere around the world.