Supporting increased residential 
energy efficiency throughout Australia

CSIRO has more than 60 years of experience in energy efficiency research, 
modelling and dissemination of information that has made us a leader in energy.

Australia has been aggressively pursuing 
improved residential energy efficiency 
over the last 20 years, implementing the 
Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme 
(NatHERS) in 2003 and increasing thermal 
performance requirements for new homes 
since then. The Building Code of Australia 
was updated in 2010 (BCA 2010) to include 
a 6-star rating for residential building 
thermal performance, and the National 
Construction Code was updated in 2022 
(NCC 2022), to include a 7-star rating for 
residential building thermal performance.

The challenge

As rising house prices have become a 
major concern in Australia, the building 
industry needs to prepare for a rapid 
expansion in construction. At the 
same time, energy use is an important 
focus throughout Australia, with the 
government setting the National Energy 
Productivity Target to improve Australia’s 
energy productivity by 40 per cent 
between 2015 and 2030 (COAG Energy 
Council, 2015). To meet both the need 
for more housing and reduced energy 
use, there is an increased emphasis on 
residential energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency standards play a key 
role in reducing energy consumption 
from the residential sector. However, 
builders have a greater incentive to save 
money on upfront building costs as the 
economic benefits from a reduction 
in energy use are realised by residents 
over the long term. 

The response 

It is important to have a neutral arbiter 
of information who can conduct research, 
build modelling tools and disseminate 
information to stakeholders to facilitate 
the development of standards and 
regulations. In Australia’s residential 
building sector, CSIRO plays this role 
for residential energy efficiency.

The most prominent output of CSIRO’s 
residential energy efficiency research 
and modelling work has been the 
AccuRate tool. The AccuRate tool is built 
using a the Chenath simulation engine. 
The Chenath engine is the culmination 
of decades of development of different 
methodologies, rules and algorithms that 
were the foundation of preceding models 
that CSIRO developed. CSIRO has also 
played a key role in the development and 
deployment of NatHERS, the residential 
home building rating system.

The impact

In 2004, NatHERS was adopted as the 
nationwide approach for rating building 
energy efficiency. It is currently used 
to assess about 90 per cent of new 
home designs (Department of Climate 
Change, Energy, the Environment and 
Water, 2022), creating a thorough 
inventory of newer Australian housing 
stock and allowing the energy efficiency 
regulations in the BCA and NCC to be 
implemented. AccuRate is still used as 
the benchmarking tool for NatHERS, 
providing the industry with confidence 
in the data and methodology underlying 
the energy efficiency rating system and 
requirements for new Australian homes. 

CSIRO’s work has supported:

• an acceleration of the implementation 
of BCA 2010 and NCC 2022 due to 
CSIRO’s research support and analysis 
tools like AccuRate
• an agreement on information, 
analysis methods and modelling 
techniques across an array of industry 
stakeholders, providing confidence in 
the regulatory analysis of new policy
• greater access to information on 
home energy performance on new 
and existing housing stock with the 
support of NatHERS and the future 
release of RapidRate.


An independent impact assessment showed 
that from 2003 through 2050, CSIRO’s 
energy efficiency services provide a median 
present value estimate of $1.72 billion in net 
benefits (within a range of $609 million 
to $3.17 billion). A median benefit‑cost 
ratio of 69 is estimated, with a range of 
24 to 127. This means that for every $1 
invested, around $69 in benefits accrue.

Anthony Wright | CSIRO Energy | Group Leader, Energy Performance
+61 3 9662 7349 | anthony.wright@csiro.au | csiro.au/research/technology-space/energy

Image: Solar panel at the CSIRO 
Energy Centre, Newcastle