Australian Zero Emission House

Our increasing ecological footprint deficit is primarily driven by the increasing rate of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions caused by human activities and resource consumption trends. Immediate investment and action are required to support Australia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and contribution to the global effort to reduce GHG emissions. The 2007 IPCC Mitigation Report has identified the building sector as having one of the highest benefit-cost ratios of many possible mitigation measures across different sectors. The Australian Zero Emission House (AusZEH) project has the potential to significantly contribute to GHG emissions reduction from residential buildings in Australia, and to influence a large industry sector and most Australian households to become more responsible towards energy use and GHG emissions. The AusZEH project will show that significant reduction in energy consumption, and developing  zero-emission homes (ZEH), are both practical and technically feasible now.

The AusZEH research, development and demonstration program will deliver:

1. an integrated technology assessment and demonstration platform for achieving a ZEH; this culminates in the design and construction of full-scale demonstration ZEHs;
2. a best-practice Technical Guide for Low Carbon Housing as a possible companion/supplement to a building code;
3. a house design tool for house-level what-if analyses; and
4. a housing stock options tool for housing stock what-if analyses.

The AusZEH Demonstration House @ Laurimar

About half of the total annual CO₂ emissions attributed to buildings is from energy usage in residential buildings. This is about 13% of total CO₂ emissions from all sectors in Australia.

While the building sector is not the largest contributor to GHG emissions, it is one of the fastest-growing sources. By 2010, emissions from buildings are estimated to increase by 48% above the 1990 level. Domestic energy usage causes the main peak demand in the electricity market, which forces the installed generation and distribution network to be designed to supply electricity for extreme events, such as heat waves. This results in significant under-use of the installed infrastructure during non-peak hours.

The AusZEH project is squarely aimed at developing and demonstrating technologies and innovative solutions to reduce GHG emissions from the residential building sector and to contribute to national and international efforts towards mitigating emissions that cause global warming.