Stephen Berry

Inspiring low-energy retrofits: the influence of ‘open home’ events

‘Eco open home’ events showcase environmentally sustainable home renovations and retrofits. The role of these events is explored for imparting motivation and accelerating behavioural change to the event visitors for undertaking their own low-energy retrofits. Drawing on a wide range of visitor survey datasets, these community-led and locally situated events are analyzed from a social learning perspective, focusing on the visitor experiences, and the role that open home events have as situated learning, embracing the power of storytelling. Using a ‘Many Sets of Data’ approach, data are examined from three years of Australias largest eco open home event, and visitor survey and interview reports from seven different UK eco open home events, highlighting visitor characteristics and experiences, and post-visit levels of technology adoption and behaviour change. The research finds a consistent positive experience for attendees, most of whom are homeowners already engaged on their journey of eco-home renovation. The high degree of satisfaction from attending eco open home events, combined with the high rates of perceived learning, and the track record of post-event renovation action demonstrate that these events encourage and support engaged attendees to undertake low-energy renovations.

Australia's Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme: the scientific basis for the next generation of tools

The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) underpins the performance targets set within the Building Code of Australia, and has been instrumental in reducing the energy and greenhouse gas emission impact of Australian homes. But with the last significant upgrade of the scheme and its simulation engine more than a decade ago, NatHERS is showing its age. This paper examines the emerging evidence questioning the scope, assumptions and algorithms that define the scheme, and points to a scheme that may be becoming less accurate at assessing contemporary homes and digital lifestyles. Furthermore, the inability to integrate into typical computer aided design (CAD) processes entrenches inefficiencies within the housing design industry. Responding to this evidence the paper provides a vision for evolving the scheme and its tools to better address policy needs and ensure that it remains pertinent to both industry and government, highlighting issues of relevance to many rating schemes and energy assessment ...

Transformational Role of Lochiel Park Green Village

Energy use in housing has a significant negative impact on the environment. The South Australian Government responded to concern for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by creating a model green village of near zero carbon homes in a near zero carbon impact estate. The creation of the Lochiel Park Green Village challenged actors from industry and government to set objectives, performance targets and regulatory guidelines outside existing institutional and professional norms. Evidence collected through a series of interviews has found that industry has responded to their involvement in the development by shifting away from some dominant technologies, practices and beliefs, and embracing new tools, construction practices and technologies, and policy makers have used the experience to consider new standards of building performance. Using a multi-level socio-technical framework this paper demonstrates how structural change at the regime level has come from the experience of actors at the niche level. The creation of the Lochiel Park Green Village has allowed many organisations to gain a more detailed and practical understanding of sustainable housing, and has given organisations the confidence to change industry practices, government policies, and regulatory standards.