Services

• Looking to enhance their home’s comfort and energy efficiency through retrofitting, without undertaking major renovations or structural alterations.
• Thinking about building or renovating and aiming to maximise their home’s thermal performance.

1. Home Energy Consultation

We offer personalised, in-home energy consultations aimed at creating resilient homes. Our aim is to work with you to enhance comfort, cut energy costs, and move towards all-electric living.

Each session runs for about two to three hours (depending on the size/complexity of your home) and includes a range of tailored assessments and advice. Here’s how it works:

• Initial Chat: a chat on the phone or via email to understand your energy goals and explain what the visit will involve and how we can work together.
• Walkthrough of your home: we take a close look at your home’s design, orientation as well as visible fixtures, insulation, and systems—including the roof space and under the floor.
• System Check-Up: expect an evaluation of your current heating, cooling, and hot water systems, and chat about options to get the best performance including possible upgrades to improve efficiency and long-term costs.
• Bill Analysis: reviewing your power and gas bills is a good way to spot trends or inefficiencies in appliances or how you are using energy. We’ll also talk about what you are paying for energy and if there are other providers who could better meet your needs – potentially saving hundreds of dollars per year.
• Future Planning: we can also discuss future-proofing your home including plans to remove and replace gas appliances, Electric Vehicle (EV) upgrades & charging, solar panels & battery storage and potential changes to your home’s layout or design.

We can advise on availability of government rebates for new or upgrading appliances.

Each home energy consultation is tailored for each individual and home and involves a detailed discussion of recommendations.

Consultations are priced between $350 and $450, depending on the size and complexity of your home and the travel involved. All fees are confirmed up front—no surprises.

2. Performance Modelling

Retrofitting, adapting and reuse of existing buildings is a sustainable option to enhance building performance (ie improve comfort!) and increase the resilience of your home.

Using science-based National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) modelling software FirstRate5, Dwelling Studies can analyse the thermal performance of your home. This detailed, data-driven approach models your home to predict how much energy will be required to maintain it at a comfortable temperature throughout the year.

Using this as a foundation, we can identify areas to improve your home’s performance. This could include:

• Installing or adding to existing insulation
• Retrofitting windows and glazing systems
• Upgrading or installing space heating and cooling systems such as reverse cycle air conditioners
• If your scope permits, exploring more substantial building work including renovations and extensions that maximise passive design

Retrofitting existing homes is a sustainable approach that reduces environmental impact by valuing the embodied energy and resources that exist in our built environment. By carefully considering design, materials, and finishes, we can create homes that ultimately save energy, materials, waste and carbon emissions.

Performance modelling and preliminary advice on the best way to improve your home’s thermal performance starts at $750. Additional fees to produce alternative designs, modelling of different approaches/ideas or developing concept plans for your renovation can be discussed as well.

Contact me •  ph. O45O95O425 •  dwellingstudies@proton.me