The Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living (CRCLCL) has released an online survey as part of a study to improve New South Wales’ (NSW) construction regulation tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in residential buildings.

The tool, the Building Sustainability Index (BASIX), currently applies to all residential dwellings in the state, and is part of the NSW development application process. Over 140,000 NSW homes have been built under BASIX since it was launched in 2004.

The CRCLCL project, run with partners the City of Sydney, NSW Department of Planning and Environment, and the Commonwealth Department of Industry, will compare the actual energy consumption of dwellings built under BASIX with the theoretical energy consumption levels it predicted.

Real-life data obtained from investigations of new residential buildings post-occupancy will be measured against the BASIX modelled results.

“The findings of this study will assist to identify areas for improvement of the BASIX tool. This will inform future sustainability strategies and policy to enable government regulators better understand design options and post-occupancy behaviour,” says CEO of the CRCLCL, Professor Deo Prasad.

NSW home owners are encouraged to take part in the project and survey, which is aimed at the greater Sydney area for homes or apartments dwellings approved during 2005 to 2014, and are no more than 10 years old.

These surveys will be collated and shared by a network of over 12 NSW councils in the greater Sydney region, including Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby, Parramatta, Randwick, Blacktown, Camden, Liverpool, Penrith, Fairfield, Campbelltown, Bankstown and Sutherland.

The second stage of the project, which will begin in summer, will invite 100 of the participants from the first survey to be involved in collecting live data via distributed monitors that study their home’s energy consumption, humidity and temperature.

Fill out the survey here: https://www.surveys.unsw.edu.au/f/159434/f6b5/

Geraldine Chua

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