We are licensed to provide energy efficiency ratings for new houses or extension projects for existing houses in both ACT and basics compliance in NSW including Thermal Comfort Simulations.

Price depends on the design complication of the house. Please send us plans and elevations for a firm quote. The price we quote will include reasonable refinement to achieve a "pass". Our current indicative price list can be accessed here.

Rating OptiMizer is a fast turnaround service based on NatHERSⁱ accredited software which automatically adjusts key design and construction components (like window size and wall insulation) and reports on the impact of incremental changes on the heating and cooling energy consumption and star ratingⁱⁱ of the proposed dwelling.

This report allows strategic optimisation of designs to minimise the cost of complianceⁱⁱⁱ or to minimise the costs of energy required to heat and cool the dwelling. Compromise solutions for cost effectively exceeding the regulatory minimum energy efficiency are also accessible through the service as are focussed analyses (e.g. all generic fenestration options or all WERS rated fenestration options of a nominated window manufacturer).

For detailed information, click here.

Especially in Australia's uplands, passive solar design is a very powerful technique for achieving year-round comfort with little or no purchased energy. The SunConscious Design team, with experience in all of Australia's varied climates, applies an extensive vocabulary of "passive solar" design techniques in combination to create highly-liveable, artistic spaces which are cheap to run and very gentle on the environment.

For more information, click here.          For a brochure, click here.

EERs are expressed in Stars, ranging from 0 stars for very poor performance, through

• 4 stars - the minimum BCA requirement from 2003,
• 5 stars - the minimum BCA requirement from 2006,
• 6 stars - the minimum BCA requirement from 2010, up to
• 10 stars for a home that needs no heating or cooling except for some de-humidification in torrid weather.

Clients seeking high performance will be guided by expert advice and parametric simulation of alternative designs and constructions to approach the “perfected” design outcome.

More information about Indicative heating and cooling costs of high and low performing homes.

We are experienced to prepare BCA Section J Deemed-to-Satisfy (DTS) compliance reports for non-residential buildings for the Development Application and Building Approval process. Please call or email us for a quote.

DTS is a low fee method of demonstrating compliance with Section J. However, lower overall cost solutions are routinely established using the JV3 alternative (see below). Here trade-offs are encouraged to foster application of high efficiency low cost methods and components in one part to make possible the use of low efficiency low cost methods or components elsewhere in the building design where a high cost solution (like high-performance glazing) would be required using the DTS standards.

Apart from the BCA Section J Deemed-to-Satisfy report, we are experienced to use advanced simulation software to carry out JV3 analysis and provide cost-effective building solutions for non-residential buildings.

JV3 analysis requires the detailed simulation of the proposed building in three versions:

• Reference Building is modelled as having the same overall form and function of the proposed building but with construction, insulation, fenestration and services conforming with the Deemed-To-Satisfy (DTS) standards listed in Section J of the Building Code of Australia (BCA);
• Proposed Building with proposed construction, insulation, fenestration but with DTS services; and
• Proposed Building with proposed construction, insulation, fenestration and with proposed services.

To obtain Building Approval, the modelling must show that both versions of the Proposed Building consume no more energy than the Reference Building.

Our advanced building simulation technique is also capable of energy efficiency modelling and analysis for innovative building products like Ventis, Cupolex and SolaMate.

Please call or email us for details.

We can prepare reports for the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) assessment for improving building's sustainability performance and financial benefits. Please call or email us for a quote.

Energy Partners provides advice ranging from policy through to detailed system design for renewable energy installations and prepared the Australian Solar Radiation Data Handbook (ASRDH) and its companion software package AUSOLRAD for the Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) in 2006. The solar-electric design software packages PV-SPS and PV-GC are both based on the ASRDH data under a license agreement with JP Energy.

For more information, click here.