Final Week

Our final week began with continuing our NCC study, combing through both the 2016 and 2019 NCC documents looking for changes to section J. The model was remade countless times in IES and extensive time was spent on glazing and façade calculators. The current results of the study indicate that the 2019 NCC criteria are stricter in some aspects, however allows greater flexibility in design. Here are some key points we have discovered thus far:

• The new façade calculator allows for more flexible design through trading off window and wall performance. Performance can also be traded off between different façade orientations/ levels. In general the 2019 calculator requires higher performing materials to meet minimum criteria.
• The new façade calculator now assesses all levels of a building and has only 4 orientations compared to the previous 8. While these changes make the calculator easier to use, this reduction in complexity may result in less optimized solutions.
• There are some minor changes to insulation values in areas such as roof and walls. These changes however did not affect our project.
• Energy usage is now required to be measured in greenhouse gas emission equivalent.
• The new code also introduces a thermal comfort requirement.

This week we participated in a site visit to the Eastland council office extension, this project was further developed than our previous site visits. Here we were able to witness insulation, glazing and HVAC installation. We sat in on discussions with contractors regarding feasibility of interior design materials.

To finish the week we began another IES VE JV3 assessment of a sports precinct, after our student housing project we were very relieved to have a single story project that our computers can handle. We are much more comfortable with this project after our previous experience with the student housing project and our NCC study.

Huge thanks to Sean, Rob and the whole Peddle Thorp team for being so welcoming, this internship has been more valuable than any classes we have taken at university. It has been a great chance to deliver real ESD reports, NatHERS assessments, JV3 analysis, waste management plans, storm water analysis and assisting with achieving council approval. It was fantastic to get some hands on experience with tools such as IES VE, FirstRate 5, BESS and STORM and a taste of the Green Star assessment process.    

Unfortunately this may also be the end of Broderick’s soccer career with the Peddle Thorp team with an undefeated streak since joining the team, if Broderick is around on Tuesdays he may make occasional cameo appearances. While our internship has sadly come to an end we will be popping around the office to complete our NCC study and work on some projects.