Michael Ambrose | CSIRO - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Michael Ambrose

The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme, commonly known as NatHERS, which is applied through so... more The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme, commonly known as NatHERS, which is applied through software tools such as AccuRate Sustainability, has become the predominant pathway for complying with energy efficiency requirements within the National Construction Code of Australia. Current energy efficiency regulations have remained unchanged for a decade and there is an intention to increase these requirements, through mandating a higher minimum star rating for buildings. Furthermore, existing energy efficiency regulations only cover the building envelope, through the energy needed for space heating and cooling, and not the energy efficiency of major appliances. In addition, current regulations do not incorporate sufficient quality assurance processes, in relation to compliance. Finally, the current regime is inconsistent with international best practice. This project aimed to review, analyse and recommend changes, in light of these issues.Examination of measured energy for heating an...

Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 2022

Multiple market failures have historically delivered housing that is environmentally and economic... more Multiple market failures have historically delivered housing that is environmentally and economically sub-optimal. Minimum energy standards are a popular policy tool for lowering energy use and anthropogenic carbon emissions in the built environment, but evidence shows they fail to drive performance beyond that minimum. Mandating the disclosure of energy performance on sale or lease of property has been introduced in some jurisdictions to transform the building stock and encourage energy and carbon saving improvements. These policy instruments address different market failures and have the potential to act as complementary regulation, but to date there has been little evidence that the combination may deliver greater benefits than each individual policy measure. The analysis of 342,674 housing energy assessments in Australia from May 2016–June 2021 highlights the impact of complementary vs. single policy instruments. We find that the building regulatory process alone delivers certai...

Authors Disclaimer The Client makes use of this Report or any information provided by the Coopera... more Authors Disclaimer The Client makes use of this Report or any information provided by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation in relation to the Consultancy Services at its own risk. Construction Innovation will not be responsible for the results of any actions taken by the Client or third parties on the basis of the information in this Report or other information provided by Construction Innovation nor for any errors or omissions that may be contained in this Report. Construction Innovation expressly disclaims any liability or responsibility to any person in respect of any thing done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance on this

The Client makes use of this Report or any information provided by the Cooperative Research Centr... more The Client makes use of this Report or any information provided by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation in relation to the Consultancy Services at its own risk. Construction Innovation will not be responsible for the results of any actions taken by the Client or third parties on the basis of the information in this Report or other information provided by Construction Innovation nor for any errors or omissions that may be contained in this Report. Construction Innovation expressly disclaims any liability or responsibility to any person in respect of any thing done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance on this Report or any information provided.

Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2018

This paper presents a theoretical argument that low carbon strivings-personal goals to reduce car... more This paper presents a theoretical argument that low carbon strivings-personal goals to reduce carbon footprint in the household-can predict a wide range of diverse behaviours to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reports four studies to validate Low Carbon Readiness Index (LCRI), a short, three-item measure of low carbon strivings. It is a simple and easy-to-use indicator of the general public's readiness to transition to a fully low carbon lifestyle. LCRI is associated with validated measures predicting environmentally significant reported behaviour (Study 1), multiple low carbon behavioural clusters (Study 2 & 3), and predicts reduction in actual energy use, arguably an aggregate measure of actual low carbon behaviours (Study 4). LCRI can be used to develop low carbon policies and monitor their implementation.

Agger K Distributing Knowledge in Building Arhus June 12 14 Denmark, 2002

Building designers and developers are expected to meet an increasing range of constraints on buil... more Building designers and developers are expected to meet an increasing range of constraints on building projects. Normally, the new constraints are part of an established body of knowledge which designers either have to learn or a new "discipline" emerges which has expertise in the new area. While the stock of buildings is improved through these new requirements, both of these paths increase the complexity of the design process with consequent increases in time and cost for the project. LICHEE is an advanced prototype of a system that integrates CAD with life cycle energy assessment. With the addition of some extra information, it automatically estimates the operational energy and embodied energy requirements of detached housing The system was built out of existing components using the Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) as the "glue" to bind the components together. The use of the IFCs provided significant savings in development time over writing interfaces against the major CAD systems. The software architecture chosen allowed the use of existing stand-alone software components that previously required extra expertise and time.

The ability to assess a commercial building for its impact on the environment at the earliest sta... more The ability to assess a commercial building for its impact on the environment at the earliest stage of design is a goal which is achievable by integrating several approaches into a single procedure directly from the 3D CAD representation. Such an approach enables building design professionals to make informed decisions on the environmental impact of building and its alternatives during the design development stage instead of at the post-design stage where options become limited. The indicators of interest are those which relate to consumption of resources and energy, contributions to pollution of air, water and soil, and impacts on the health and well- being of people in the built environment as a result of constructing and operating buildings. 3D object-oriented CAD files contain a wealth of building information which can be interrogated for details required for analysis of the performance of a design. The quantities of all components in the building can be automatically obtained f...

CIB REPORT, 2003

Buildings consume resources and energy, contribute to pollution of our air, water and soil, impac... more Buildings consume resources and energy, contribute to pollution of our air, water and soil, impact the health and well-being of populations and constitute an important part of the built environment in which we live. The ability to assess their design with a view to reducing that impact automatically from their 3D CAD representations enables building design professionals to make informed decisions on the environmental impact of building structures. Contemporary 3D object-oriented CAD files contain a wealth of building information. LCADesign has been designed as a fully integrated approach for automated eco-efficiency assessment of commercial buildings direct from 3D CAD. LCADesign accesses the 3D CAD detail through Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs)-the international standard file format for defining architectural and constructional CAD graphic data as 3D real-world objects-to permit construction professionals to interrogate these intelligent drawing objects for analysis of the performance of a design. The automated takeoff provides quantities of all building components whose specific production processes, logistics and raw material inputs, where necessary, are identified to calculate a complete list of quantities for all products such as concrete, steel, timber, plastic etc and combines this information with the life cycle inventory database, to estimate key internationally recognised environmental indicators such as CML, EPS and Eco-indicator 99. This paper outlines the key modules of LCADesign and their role in delivering an automated eco-efficiency assessment for commercial buildings. Intended phase Intended users and beneficiaries Strategic planning and Schematic design Detailed design and construction Operation including repair and maintenance Clients Asset owners Facility managers Quality managers Providers Suppliers Methods for sustainable asset management Quality management Communication between management and providers e.g. ESSAM & ESD Office Fitout Guideline 1 Clients Designers Constructors Suppliers Methods for environmentally conscious design Comparison of possible design alternatives Assessment against stated target values Communication between client and designers e.g. LCADesign Owners, investors occupants Facility managers, building operators Developers Real estate brokers Methods for rating of existing building from environmental aspect Communication between stakeholders for investment to existing building e.g. LEED 2 Owners Designers Building managers and operators Occupants Methods for sustainable operation Communication between stakeholders for building assessment e.g. NABERS 3

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Procedia Engineering, 2017

What is the most effective way to help low income households use less energy? Is it best to targe... more What is the most effective way to help low income households use less energy? Is it best to target the building in which they live by upgrading its thermal envelope, its lighting, its heating and cooling system, or its hot water system? Or is it more effective to focus on educating the householder and facilitating energy efficiency through behaviour change? Or is a combination of the two required? This paper presents the results of a randomised control trial that compares changes in energy consumption in 320 low income Victorian households which underwent different combinations of retrofit and behaviour change interventions. The results show that households which underwent retrofit only interventions reduced total energy consumption by 7.1% and were 1°C warmer in winter; households which underwent a combination of retrofit and behaviour change interventions reduced gas consumption by 18.6% and total energy consumption by 11.4%; households which underwent behaviour change only interventions did not show a noticeable improvement.

Energy Procedia, 2017

District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective s... more District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective solutions for decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat sales. Due to the changed climate conditions and building renovation policies, heat demand in the future could decrease, prolonging the investment return period. The main scope of this paper is to assess the feasibility of using the heat demand-outdoor temperature function for heat demand forecast. The district of Alvalade, located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665 buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors. The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications (the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered). The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

Procedia Engineering

To achieve the energy efficiency standards in the National Construction Code, houses generally ne... more To achieve the energy efficiency standards in the National Construction Code, houses generally need to use insulation and weather sealing. However, if poorly installed this can lead to houses that have lower energy efficiency performance than expected. There has been little data collected on newly built houses to quantify airtightness and assess the quality of insulation. This paper reports on a study that investigated new house construction around Australia to gain insight into the quality of house construction with regard to air-tightness and quality of insulation. Twenty houses in each capital city, except Darwin, were recruited for the project. The houses in most cities were up to 3 years old and assumed to be at the 6 star NatHERS standard. Blower door testing was carried out on 125 of the volunteer homes and the resulting air changes per hour at 50 Pascals pressure (ACH@50Pa) for each house was then determined. In addition, an inspection of each house was undertaken by a qualified energy assessor to assess the quality of the insulation installed. A thermal inspection of the walls and ceiling was undertaken as well as a visual inspection of the ceiling insulation (if accessible). Weather sealing around windows and doors was also inspected for any gaps and damage. A broad range of results was achieved and found that well sealed houses are being constructed, but equally poorly performing houses are also still being built. To maximise value for energy in our houses, it is critical that we determine why these differences occur and how we can consistently build well sealed houses.

Water authorities around the world are faced with the problem of ageing distribution networks and... more Water authorities around the world are faced with the problem of ageing distribution networks and often only limited historical data on which to base a sound long term, cost efficient replacement policy. The LICAN approach to whole of life costing is introduced and a hypothetical case study is used to demonstrate the importance of such an approach. A selection of pipe networks utilizing different pipe materials (PVC, DI and PE) are modeled to determine their whole of life cost, taking into account installation, maintenance and repair costs.

International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development, 2013

A new tool for predicting the total energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissi... more A new tool for predicting the total energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Australian households is developed by integrating the thermal efficiency of the building envelope, installed equipment and appliances, and different occupancy profiles with energy end-use modules for space heating, space cooling, water heating, lighting, and plug-in appliances. Space heating and cooling energy consumption are simulated by an enhanced version of a house energy rating tool-AccuRate, modified to account for specific heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) system efficiency and occupancy profile. Individual modules for hot water, lighting and appliances are developed, calibrated and assessed against available published end-use data in Australia and New Zealand. The tool's integrated capability to predict the annual energy consumption of a tenant-occupied house in Melbourne is validated with actual data measured over a 12-month period.

Australia has had minimum energy efficiency regulations for new residential buildings for over a ... more Australia has had minimum energy efficiency regulations for new residential buildings for over a decade. Assessment is undertaken using thermal modelling software that determines the thermal efficiency of the building envelope and awards a star rating out of ten. Despite being in place for many years it is only recently that data has been captured and analysed. This has allowed the ability to assess the effectiveness of the regulations and determine strengths and weaknesses in the assessment process. This paper discusses the initial insights that have been achieved through analysis of the data. Almost 200,000 assessments are in the HStar database, providing insight into how well dwellings are achieving the requirements based on location, dwelling type and dwelling size. Data on construction systems utilised allows analysis of approaches that designers and architects have used to achieve the requirements. This includes building material choices for walls, floors and roofs and insulat...

Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering School of Design, Sep 1, 2006

Ambrose, Michael., Miller, Anne and O'Hare, Daniel. Subtropical subdivisions : toward a lot-ratin... more Ambrose, Michael., Miller, Anne and O'Hare, Daniel. Subtropical subdivisions : toward a lot-rating methodology for subtropical climates.

As our cities expand, developers are transforming more and more land to create our suburbs of the... more As our cities expand, developers are transforming more and more land to create our suburbs of the future. Developers and government bodies have a golden opportunity to design suburbs that are not only great places to live, but also are environmentally sensitive and sustainable. This is a unique opportunity, as significant changes after development are constrained by the configuration of the subdivision, and then by the construction of the dwellings. This paper explores some of these issues by presenting initial findings from the CRC-CI, Sustainable Subdivisions Project. The Project examines the drivers and barriers that land developers face when trying to achieve sustainable subdivisions. This paper will review the results from a series of industry interviews and workshops and explore possible ways forward. In addition, the possible effect on the way future land subdivision is managed and planned as a result of recent changes in the energy efficiency provisions of the Building Code of Australia will be explored.

... has been shown, voluntary schemes have little overall impact and for sustainability measures ... more ... has been shown, voluntary schemes have little overall impact and for sustainability measures to ... For example, the 5 star energy rating requirement for Victorian homes was considered too ... as such LICHEE employs Industry Foundation Classes or IFC's as its input file standard. ...