One of the biggest issues we find in the home and commercial building energy rating industry is the huge discrepancy in pricing and turn-around times for a report. Energy rating businesses can take advantage of a lack of industry regulation and marketplace understanding around what a good energy rating should deliver.

This bears the question: What should an accurate and helpful Energy Rating Report look like and detail?

Unfortunately, not all energy rating reports are created equal. We are often contacted to review reports after designers and builders discover issues that result from recommendations not being viable. This may mean extra costs because of un-buildable specifications.

Below we detail what you should expect from a good energy rating report that has helpful and buildable specifications that will deliver long-term energy savings and occupier comfort.

This should also, hopefully, provide clarity as to what’s a reasonable price and timeframe to undertake the work.

What our Energy Rating Report details

• Methodology
  Explanation of what energy rating software has been used and why. The method will be chosen to meet your State or Territory’s legislation requirements and in alignment with a discussion about your needs.
• Summary of Results
  This is usually one page of initial assumptions and inclusions from our discussion and your submitted plan and/or design, and will detail specifications for:
  > Floors
  > External walls
  > Internal walls
  > Windows
  > Roof/Ceilings

• Other information such as lighting, doors, floor coverings, doors, fans.
• Initial results
  The energy rating result with the current specifications and assumptions. (Heating, Cooling and Total energy MJ/m2.annum.)
• Recommendations to achieve the required rating
• Specifications with explanation will include:
  > Floors
  > Walls (external and internal)
  > Roof and Ceilings
  > Windows: System performance (Uw & SHGCw) and typical system (glaze, material type) for each room and location.
  > Draught sealing/Air leakage (fans, lights, doors)
• Other explanations in the report include passive design factors such as:
  > Overshadowing from adjacent buildings
  > Insulation including bulk insulation products
  > Building sealing
  > Exhaust fans

Our Premium Energy Rating Report includes all the above but with an extra page of further detail and analysis of the thermal elements pertaining to your project, such as glazing, insulation, shading, ventilation, thermal mass. This provides you with a greater understanding of how and why we’ve achieved the energy rating and the recommendations to deliver greater energy efficiency.

We’ve detailed a good report, we need to also discuss an unhelpful one.

We’ve seen them time and again; a simplistic one-page report that only details the requirements for a home or commercial building to reach the minimum star rating. That’s it.

Usually there is only one recommendation for each energy rating criteria (e.g. windows, ceilings, walls, slabs) irrespective of whether the material specifications can be sourced or built with your specific design and/or plan.

The biggest issue, usually, is the lack of material options for different locations of the home/building. For example, one window recommendation regardless of the building positioning.

There’s no clarity what method is used to calculate the rating or why. There’s no clarification of the starting (submitted) design/plan and what rating this would achieve. There’s no clear recommendations of how to increase the rating to achieve the minimum rating requirement.

We must clarify that this type of report will meet a building permit application requirement, but is unlikely to be helpful in delivering a house or building that is actually energy efficient. 

What's the value in an accurate energy rating report?

If your quote is offering a report at a very low cost and delivery time within 24 hours, consider what you’ll receive - what can possibly be assessed accurately within that time period? Then consider the extra spend on an accurate rating report and how that will save you in the long run and ultimately increase the value of the property itself.

If you're interested in the latter, we'd love to hear from you!