BCA 2010 revised energy-efficiency provisions

Earlier this year, Senator Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science & Research and Senator Penny Wong, Acting Environment Minister announced that new provisions for greenhouse pollution reduction would be included in the national Building Code of Australia (BCA) for 2010. These new provisions have been developed at the request of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to enhance the existing energy-efficiency provisions in the BCA.

Some of the key changes for the 2010 BCA that impact the electrical industry include:

• Revised Objective, Functional Statements and some Performance Requirements to recognise that the goal is greenhouse gas emission reduction rather than energy efficiency alone and in doing so, give further credit for renewable energy sources.
• New provisions for artificial lighting within dwellings and associated Class 10a buildings with the allowance for the dwelling able to be increased if control systems are installed.
• Specific lighting provisions such as separate switching for high- and low-efficiency lamps.
• Revision of the table for adjusting ceiling insulation if penetrations exceed 0.5% (now based on the R-Value required, rather than the climate zone).
• As well as the current provisions for heating a space using a water-heating system, there are now requirements for a heating system other than a water-based one, eg, electricity is not permitted and oil is limited to locations without reticulated gas.
• At the request of some industry stakeholders, the definitions of ‘fan power’ and ‘pump power’ have been revised.
• Some illumination power density allowances have been increased, while others have been reduced.
• The adjustment formulae for the lighting of small rooms has been amended and relocated to directly under the illumination power density table.
• Large, single-function spaces, such as auditorium and sports stadiums, have been exempted from the switching area limit provisions.
• New provisions have been added for the metering of energy usage.
• Inclusion of ‘worst case’ advisory information on roof lights performance, with and without a ceiling diffuser.
• New limitations on the use of electric resistance space heating.
• New provisions for supply water heaters that specify the performance of the heaters and also severely limit the use of electric resistance heaters.

The ABCB is in the process of updating all of its energy-efficiency calculators, handbooks and its energy-efficiency education modules. It is also producing a handbook for electricians and plumbers to inform them of matters in the BCA of which they should be aware.