The Government’s New 7-Star Rating: What It Means

On 1 October 2024, energy-efficiency minimums for new homes in Australia has now risen from six to seven stars. Here’s what it means for you!

All new homes in Australia now need to meet a seven-star energy-efficiency rating from 1st October 2024, up from the current six stars. This is part of the government’s efforts to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and move us towards a net-zero future.

Unclear about the difference between a six- and seven-star home? You’ve come to the right place. Read on to discover all the new features you can expect to see in a seven-star SA Design Drafted home. 

So, what is a 7-star house? 

A seven-star house will be more energy-efficient than a six-star house, which has been the standard since 2010.

How much will a 7-star home save me on running costs?

In the long-term, you can expect significant savings on your power bills in a seven-star home. These include:

• Around 24% reduction on your heating and cooling costs by switching to energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.

• Savings of up to $555 annually by switching to energy-efficient appliances, such as refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, in a mixed-fuel household of four people.

• Or, by choosing all-electric appliances, you can save around $910 on annual power bills in an average four-person home.

SA Design Drafting seven-star homes will be carefully designed to reduce your electricity and water bills, along with your environmental footprint, as Australia moves towards a net-zero future.

How will SA Design Drafting 7-star homes differ from the current 6-star homes?

We’ve always designed our homes to be energy-efficient in order to help you reduce electricity and water consumption, and minimise your home’s environmental impact. So, you’ll find an awful lot of similarities between our six- and seven-star designed homes.

Features like optimising your home’s orientation to maximise natural light and shade to improve comfort and reduce the need for artificial heating and cooling, flexible open-plan living spaces that you can easily adapt for different purposes, quality insulation, double glazing, and a solar hot-water system that lets you harness the free power of the sun are already standard across SA Design Drafted homes.

Whole of Home rating system

The government’s new seven-star regulations will include a Whole of Home ‘budget’, which measures the energy use of your entire home, including the building shell, insulation, energy-efficient appliances, heating and cooling, water heating, and lighting, minus the energy generated from solar panels.

You can learn more about the Whole of Home rating system here.

So, what will be in my newly SA Design Drafted 7-star home?

Orientation

This positions your living spaces where they will receive maximum natural light and ventilation, optimises shading, boosts day-to-day comfort, and lowers your home’s energy costs. It also means you’ll be able to enjoy a sunny outdoor entertaining area year-round.

Double glazing on all windows

In your seven-star newly designed home, most/all your windows and some sliding external doors will be double-glazed. In some homes, low-E (low-emissivity) glass will also be included to give energy efficiency a further boost.

Windows play a vital role in your home’s energy efficiency, with the average home losing up to 40% of heating and cooling through low-performance windows. Switching to high-performance, double-glazed windows and low-E glass gives your home a crucial, extra layer of insulation, which can result in significant savings on heating and cooling.

Premium ceiling and wall insulation

A well-insulated house helps keep your interior naturally temperate, so there’s less pressure on your heating and cooling system, which lowers your power bills and emissions.

Insulation levels in most of our homes will remain unchanged when the new seven-star regulations come into effect, but some of our homes will feature upgraded ceiling and wall insulation.

Zoned and open-plan living spaces

All our home will be designed to give you maximum flexibility, with a thoughtful mix of open-plan spaces and zoned areas, such as studies, theatre rooms and activity areas, so you can work, relax, entertain, and spend time with family exactly how you like.

Your new seven-star home will include additional features, like internal sliding doors, that make it easy to zone off spaces so you can create privacy where you want it, keep the kids’ messy play area out of sight, or heat or cool individual rooms rather than the whole house.

Energy-efficient appliances

All new seven-star homes will include energy-efficient appliances as standard, so you can run them for less and minimise your environmental footprint. 

Zoned, energy-efficient heating and cooling

Your new seven-star home will likely include a highly efficient ducted heating and cooling system with a zoning function that lets you warm or cool single rooms or a specific part of your house, which can slash your heating and cooling costs by around 24%.

The system will be tailored to suit your home’s proportions so as to minimise the chance of energy wastage, and it will come with a programmable thermostat so there’s less chance of overheating or overcooling rooms or zones.

Roofing

Your roof makes up around 30% of your home’s facade and is exposed to high UV levels, making it an important part of the energy-efficiency equation. The roof tiles required to meet seven-star regulations will depend on your home’s location.

Lighter-coloured roof tiles will be used in warmer areas in order to keep your home naturally cooler. In colder areas, darker roof tiles will be used to save on heating. 

Carpet

Wall-to-wall carpet will feature in select parts of your seven-star home, such as bedrooms, the study, theatre room and activity zone, in order to boost comfort underfoot, and reduce heat loss in winter.

Solar energy

We’ve always made allowances in designs for solar-powered systems so you can harness clean, free energy from the sun and reduce your reliance on the power grid.

You will also have the option to upgrade to a solar system with a backup battery, which can significantly boost your power production, while storing energy that can be used if there’s a blackout.

A heat-pump hot water system

Your new seven-star home will likely have allowances equipped with an electric heat-pump hot water system, tailored to suit the size of your home so there’s no risk of anyone suffering a cold shower.

Homes with two showers will have a 280-litre tank, and homes with four showers or more will have two tanks (280 litres and 170 litres).

Heat-pump hot water systems work by transferring heat in the air outside the unit to the water inside the tank. Like solar hot-water systems, which use the sun’s energy, a heat-pump system can slash your hot water bills, while being gentler on the environment.