Several groups are studying this issue and making recommendations to Australian governments and the Building Codes Board (ABCB). We have reported earlier on the work of Dr Anir Upadhyay at UNSW in association with Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) in this area using historic and ersatz future data supplied by Exemplary (A higher NatHERS star rating: Is it the holy grail of low energy and heat resilient residential buildings?).
The imminent issue of “Renew” magazine will include a synopsis of the report to be published around the same time by Sweltering Cities and Renew with the support of Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) analysing how changing climate conditions impact Australian home energy efficiency.
“Australian building standards require homes to meet energy efficiency standards (NatHERS). These NatHERS ratings measure how much energy is needed to heat and cool homes in a range of climate zones, setting limits for heating and cooling loads to achieve star ratings. The climate zones are designed using existing weather data: until 2022 these were based on weather data from 1970-2005; from 2022 the data is from 1990-2015.”