The Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) and Standards Australia have released for public comment a draft version of DR AS/NZS 5141: 201X, Residential climate control systems – Minimum applications and requirements for energy efficiency, performance and comfort criteria.
Standards Australia CEO Dr Bronwyn Evans said the standard was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee EE-001, Residential Air Conditioning.
“This standard sets out the requirements for the design, selection, installation, commissioning and maintenance of residential climate control heating, cooling and air conditioning systems,” Dr Evans said.
“Maximising the energy efficiency of these systems was a key consideration by the committee, as well as the safety and comfort of building occupants.”
AIRAH CEO Tony Gleeson, said regulation aimed at improving the efficiency of residential climate control is overdue.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of work over the past few years on improving the efficiency of HVAC in many building types. However, the residential sector just hasn’t had the attention that’s been focused on, for example, commercial, university, or public buildings,” Gleeson said.
“At the same time, our intense summers mean the penetration of residential air conditioning to Australian households is understandably high, and growing. For health and comfort reasons, more Australians than ever have seen the need to cool their homes. They’ve done this, however, at a time of ever-increasing utility costs and amid a general awareness that our country must reduce its emissions if it’s to meet our Paris Agreement commitments.
“Given that a substantial percentage of a building’s energy use is dedicated to HVAC, making residential comfort cooling as efficient as possible just makes sense. A residential climate control standard will go a long way towards making this happen.”
AIRAH’s executive manager for government and technical services Phil Wilkinson, said setting minimum standards for energy efficiency for climate control systems will offer greater consumer protection.
“Another impact of having clearly defined minimum application requirements for residential climate control is that even greater rigour will be applied to our industry. The fly-by-nighters, cowboys and unscrupulous operators will hopefully be driven out of the industry for good,” Wilkinson said.
“AIRAH first proposed a draft version of the residential air conditioning standard in 2011, and has worked tirelessly since then with Standards Australia to bring the standard to this point.”
Deadline for comment is December 1, 2017.