The much talked about house energy rating software AccuRate was
released in April 2006, AccuRate is the second generation version of
‘NatHERS’ so will be replacing it. This release of AccuRate comes in as
a relief to construction of new houses in SA which require minimum
5-star energy rating perfrmance.
Current simulation softwares for measuring energy performance are
Firstrate, Building Code of Australia-Deemed to Satisfy, BERS, BASIX
(for NSW), ACTHERS (for ACT) that take into account 28 different
climatic zones for Australia but AccuRate has the ability to deal with
69 different climatic zones. This means that AccuRate is able to model houses in every state and territory of Australia with much more precision and accuracy.
Other improvements include:
- better modelling of the cooling effect of air movement
- a floor area correction so that smaller houses are not penalised in the star rating
- more internal zones -69 different climatic zones
- a wider range of construction materials
- improved modelling of reflective insulation
- integration with the windows energy rating scheme (WERS)
- more stars – now up to 10
- an easier to use interface more suited to newer computer operating systems
AccuRate will provide the benchmark for accrediting other HERS
software for use with the BCA requirements. Other software packages
will have to give results consistent with AccuRate.
Furthermore AccuRate is technically more advanced and can be used
for buildings with up to 99 rooms, enabling independent view of heating
and cooling of each room. This would enable assessors to view and
calculate energy emissions for complex buildings and suggest changes in
a much more viewable format.
