The Narara Ecovillage Building Standards & Guidelines (the Building Standards) have been developed in support of the community’s vision, mission and aims.
The NEV Building Standards have been developed and implemented by the NEV Community to further our aims to research, design and build a thriving Ecovillage which demonstrates our commitment to ecological and social sustainability
The standards seek an outcome based on inclusive decision making, good design, good health and the wellbeing of all community members. They encourage small and inexpensive houses knowingly designed to provide thermal comfort, low water use and low energy consumption. The standards also seek innovation from community members in the design of their homes and the use of recycled and locally sourced materials wherever possible. We are all seeking homes with a significantly reduced impact on the environment when compared to the “average” house currently built in NSW and in Australia as a whole.
We aim for standards equal to the current best practice which incorporate higher sustainability and performance outcomes than those set by other commonly used rating tools. In addition, we seek cost effective outcomes for all sustainability elements incorporated into the homes of community lot owners.
The Building Standards will be reviewed regularly the Building Review Panel who will report to Community Association when formed. The Building Review Panel is focused on improving the standards with reference to our community aims, affordability and building performance.
Please contact Grant Rickey ( glrickey@gmail.com) from the Building Standards Working Group if you have any question regarding these Standards.
1. Background to the Building Standards
Our Building Standards are based on:
Conserving potable water and managing stormwater, greywater & blackwater. Greywater being waste water from showers and basins and blackwater being water from toilets.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by a building’s thermal performance and other energy use in a building.
Supporting increased use of renewable energy.
Managing peak power demand.
Lowering the environmental impacts of building materials by reducing their embodied energy and toxicity.
Minimising construction and domestic Waste.
Managing the indoor environmental quality of building including air quality, lighting, thermal conditions, pollutants and ergonomics and their effects on building occupants.
Encouraging Innovation.
Placing livability, adaptability and resilience at the core of good building design.
They:
extend the sustainability targets for energy and water set by the Building Sustainability Index (BASIX), being the sustainable planning measure implemented under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act and applied to all residential dwelling as part of the development application process in NSW. https://www.basix.nsw.gov.au/
Incorporate lessons learned from other assessment tools in common use and from the building standards of other ecovillages, community associations and green developments.
have been independently reviewed by external reviewers, including experienced sustainability Architects and Builders
2. Like BASIX, the NEV Building Standards establish mandatory minimums standards for some sustainability element.
2. Building Performance Targets
BASIX requires a 40% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and town water usage for a standard NSW house. This standard was set in 2004, and NSW has fallen behind other states in energy efficiency standards that were adopted in 2011.
The NEV Building Standards have benchmarked reductions like those used in the state of Victoria’s Built Environment Sustainability Scorecard (BESS) and we have set an initial reduction level compared to the BASIX standard 2004 house, at:
70% for greenhouse gas emissions,
70% for Narara ecovillage dam water usage, and
a similar reduction for other Categories.
3. Smart Grid Compatible Equipment
Narara Ecovillage infrastructure incorporates advanced smart grid technology which uses a variety of operational and energy measures including smart meters, smart appliances, and renewable energy resources to control the production and distribution of electricity within the NEV mini-grid
A schedule of smart grid compatible equipment, including smart meters and inverters is located on the wiki. The page is maintained and updated by NEV so that Lot Owners can be informed on the correct equipment to choose for installation in their home to achieve the maximum benefit from the smart grid.
4. Landscape Standards and Guidelines
NEV’s Landscape Standards and Guidelines also located on the NEV Wiki and should be read in conjunction with these Building Standards & Guidelines.
5. Design Assessment Scoresheet
The home designs of Lot Owners are assessed against the Building Standards using the Design Assessment Scoresheet.
The Scoresheet measures the resources that a NEV dwelling uses, and considers the house energy emissions and water consumption in a similar manner to the 2004 BASIX benchmark but seeks an initial reduction of estimated consumption that is less than 70% of the BASIX 2004 benchmark for both. Goals for each category in the Scoresheet are provided in the following table.
Scoresheets may be filled out by either the lot owners, the lot owner’s design consultants or by a Nev Registered Assessor. The Lot Owner is responsible for any cost incurred in completing the NEV Scoresheet.
The scorecard includes 3 ratings that new homes must achieve. They are:
At least a 7-stars NatHERS rating for building thermal performance.
Reduce water consumption through installation of the highest rated WELS tap.
This requirement will be assessed using BASIX which is the Department of Planning and Environment’s building sustainability index tool used by all local Councils when approving housing developments in NSW. Our building standard however will require 40 points to be achieved earlier in the assessment process than is generally required in a BASIX assessment.
Energy generated by a home much exceeds annual average consumption.
Typically, solar photovoltaic panels (PV) will be used by home owners at Narara to generate power. To meet mandatory requirements, we call for PV sets to be sized at 2 kWp for the first bedroom and 1kWp for each additional bedroom.
Compliance with these 3 requirements will yield home designers 37 points on our assessment scorecard.
With 37 points achieved through designing in the mandatory performance items the home designer then needs to achieve a further 33 points to reach the minimum targeted score of 70 points. These additional points can be attained by selecting from the 40 other options available on the score card. These include:
Reduce embodied energy in house construction - For example a typical 2-bedroom, 140 m2 reverse brick dwelling will yield another 8 points. More bedrooms and smaller homes will give a better score, as will the appropriate selection of construction materials.
Using sustainable materials such as mud-brick, straw bale and cob etc.
Avoiding material with high human health impact such as VOC paints and PVC piping.
Adding more than the mandatory number of solar photovoltaic panels.
Selection of high star rated appliances (clothes dryers, air conditioners for example) or not having them at all.
Managed energy consumption to reduce peak loads.
Waste management during both home construction and after construction.
Maximising the home’s environment quality by designing in such things as daylight accessibility and cross ventilation.
Liveability considerations such as permitting disability access in the future
Bonus points have been built into the scorecard to account for the fact that some home owners may have difficulty in reaching 70 points because, for example, the NatHERS star rating system does not recognise innovations such as earth-ship construction, food production, water tanks and composting toilets.
