The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has received approval for a plan to test a selection of houses in Australia to generate a fuller picture of what is “typical” for construction. This is an expansion of the idea behind the often-cited House Energy Inspections Project final report in 2015.
This report showed that the average air tightness result of a new Australian house at that time was more than 15 m3/hr.m2. This number is astoundingly bad, but it must be confirmed if it is truly representative of typical construction. The relatively small sample size of 129 homes makes it difficult to use as a basis for broad conclusions. For example, more than 1000 times as many homes are built in Australia every year.
ATTMA ANZ will be contracted by CSIRO to carry out testing on a selection of new homes in at least three metropolitan areas, like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The number of houses will be dependent on the final finding amount which is to be announced soon. Tests will be conduction on both detached single dwellings and apartments.
ATTMA ANZ will issue a request for tender for testing homes, which is likely to be 10 or 20 at a time. Any ATTMA Level 1 tester in good standing with ATTMA will be eligible to apply. All data collection will be filed using the mandatory ATTMA Lodgement system. Only testers who have already filed all tests through ATTMA Lodgement according to their membership will be considered in good standing.
Stay tuned for details as soon as arrangement with CSIRO are finalised. If you have any other questions, please contact Sean Maxwell for more information.
