Last Update: 06/05/25 Contact: admin@neversleep.com.au This site is still a working in progress...

I have a vast interest on the residential building designs and I am focusing on the National Construction Code (NCC 2022) Class 1A, 2, 4 and 10 to design energy efficient houses. I am currently a Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) accredited assessor and hold an ACT building Assessor Class A licence. I can perform and generate Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) Report nationally, however, I am currently only doing consulting/advice work.

How to build a residental house with more than 7 stars energy rating (EER)?

The following steps will guide through the process of building your house with more than 7 stars.

Design consideration is like a food recipe. If you have the correct food ingredients, you can cook up a storm and that storm is your perfect dish, therefore by having considered all the following steps in your design, you can be assured in acheiving a good EER rating.

Pre-work: House design consideration

When building a house, the following design condieration matters:

• Site Location: Where you will build? Whether it is in a hot tropic areas like Cairns or a cold weather areas like Canberra.
• Site Orientation: Where is the site facing? North, South, West-South etc... This will have an impact where you will put living areas in, bedrooms etc..
• House living area size: What is the total areas of the living areas?. This will have an impact if your living space area is too large etc. e.g. 300m2. The larger living areas of the house, the less air tightness, your overall EER rating will drop.
• External wall:Type of wall cladding e.g. Brick Veneer, Double Brick, Hebel Panel, Fibre Cement, Form etc...
• Window Glazing: Whether it is double or triple glazing with aluminum, timber or PVC framing etc.
• Floor: Under Slab Insulation, Slab Edge Insulation, Suspended Floor Insulation etc.
• Ceiling and Roof: Ceiling Insulation and Roof Insulation etc.
• Insulation: Type of insulation and their R ratings. For example, wall insulation is R2.5, ceiling is R6, roof will be Anticon reflective blanket of R1.3 etc...
• Shadowing: Eaves, Retaining walls, Shades, Trees, Fences, Neighbours 2nd floor buildings etc.
• HVAC system: Air flow inside the house, regular circulation of air movement etc.
• Solar panels and Batteries: Energy genration, storage and offsets etc.

I will give you a starting point to think about how to achieve a higher energy rating house. Throughout the site, I will walk through an example of building a 10 stars EER house (approximate 100m2). There are a few steps and EER endorsed software to consider.