INDUSTRY NEWSNEWSVictoria

Victorian Residential Efficiency Scorecard looks to commercialisation

The Victorian Residential Efficiency Scorecard is a voluntary report allowing Victorian homeowners to measure their home on an eco-scale.

Although the report is currently voluntary, in response to stakeholder feedback the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning is exploring possible commercialisation opportunities for the product.

The idea behind possible commercialisation stems from the idea of pushing the report into more homes through not for profit organisations and commercial business.

As of 2014, 86 per cent of Victorian homes were built before the introduction of energy efficiency regulations brought in in 20013. Because of this, Sustainability Victoria has estimated that energy efficient households could save around 40 per cent of their total energy costs on average. This would work out to upwards of $2800 per year.

The current barriers to these benefits include the lack of reliable and comparable information for residents and uneven information provided to buyers and renters. Through the report, Victorians will be able to access reliable and clear information about their home or potential home.

The Scorecard has been designed to help householders understand the factors influencing the energy consumption and cost of their homes, and to provide guidance on how to save money on energy bills and improve hot weather performance through cost-effective upgrades.

A key feature of the Scorecard is to measure and communicate the energy efficiency performance of fixed features in existing homes, thereby providing an indication of the inherent energy efficiency of their dwelling independent of occupant behaviour.

There is thought that through the commercialisation of the Scorecard, it could be rolled out on a national basis in the near future.

However there is a concern that some property owners, and other relevant parties, would not be interested in purchasing the Scorecard. Lower income homes would be highly positioned to benefit from the report, due to its ability to save them money in the long term, but there is a concern around the cost to make the report viable for these homeowners.

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