The time required to prepare a BASIX certificate strongly depends on the complexity and type of the residential development. It generally requires the work of two or more different members of our team to complete the NatHERS thermal models and simulation results, prepare the draft and, upon payment of government fees, issue the certificate of the BASIX and NatHERS assessment results. Turnaround time for a certificate can be as low as several hours for a simple single dwelling or an alterations and additions project, or several days for large multi block residential development with hundreds of complex units. As a general rule in our office, we never overwhelm ourselves with excessive work. This policy combined with our state of the art, AI based, project management software solution, Gemma, enables us to have comfortable and available capacity to respond to the most difficult deadlines and urgent projects. In most cases, the turnaround time needs to be as quick as possible because the certificate is the last document which is prepared prior to a development application submission to the council. Due to this fact, we always keep reserve office capacity to enable us to deliver most of the projects provided to us in less than one week from the date when we have enough information to start the project.

If you are in an emergency situation as mentioned above, you can Contact Us and you will find us ready and able to address your specific circumstances.

In order for us to use NatHERS thermal modelling software to calculate the heating and cooling load of a dwelling, we require a certain type of information and details. In short, for any type of dwelling, we require at least a correctly scaled PDF architectural plans with elevations and sections, true north orientation, clear information about the construction type of floors, internal and external walls, ceiling, roof and glazing elements such as windows, glazed doors and skylights. To extend our study further to prepare a BASIX certificate, more information is required which is very dependent on the type and nature of the development. The information which is required by the online assessment tool is noticeably different for various types of residential developments. To make the process of information provision for your projects as easy as possible, we have created easy to use checklists which take only a few minutes to complete online in a browser window and they will be sent automatically to our assessors to start the assessment and thermal modelling. Please check our BASIX and NatHERS Checklists page for relevant checklists of all types of developments.

BASIX scheme is one of the strongest residential building sustainability schemes in the world and arguably the strongest and the most elaborate in Australia. However, the online tool and the assessment of certain types of developments is not without limitations and room for improvement. The most widely criticised aspect of the online assessment tool has been its allowance to create a certificate for a single dwelling without any NatHERS thermal modeling using DIY and particularly RAPID method. Since 1st of July 2017, NSW Department of Planning has removed the RAPID method from the options available for thermal comfort section of the BASIX, but the DIY method is still available for single dwellings. You can visit our News Page for information regarding the most recent regulation changes.

Another aspect that makes the online assessment tool limited to an extent is the limited number of options available for different types of emerging technologies. To address this limitation there is an option in the online assessment tool to allow the user to submit an application for an Alternative Assessment. This method of assessment allows the buildings which cannot be fully introduced to the online tool to be assessed. The current turnaround time for this method after submitting the application is specified by the Department of Planning to be at least 20 working days which is not appropriate for the vast majority of applications.

The BASIX online tool awards a certificate of compliance to a building if that building successfully satisfies the requirements of BASIX in the areas of energy and water efficiency and thermal comfort. To measure the performance of a dwelling in these areas, a target system for each field is used. These BASIX targets are calculated based on the average performance benchmarks throughout NSW. Before 1st of July 2017, these targets have been as follows:

• Water target, up to a 40% reduction in potable water consumption
• Energy target, up to a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• Thermal comfort target, minimum performance levels for the thermal comfort of the dwelling

Due to these facts BASIX certificate energy and water scores for Sydney are generally higher than more harsh climate conditions in NSW which, in some cases like Snowy Mountains, have very high allowance for heating requirements in colder seasons. These targets change based on the regional considerations and limitations throughout NSW. From 1st of July 2017, the energy and thermal comfort targets are significantly increased, and the water target is unchanged. Please check our news announcement regarding this update.

Another aspect that makes the tool limited to some extent is the limited number of options available for different types of emerging technologies. To address this limitation there is an option in the online tool to allow the user to submit an application for an Alternative Assessment. This method of assessment allows the buildings which cannot be fully introduced to the online tool to be assessed. The current turn around time for this method, after submitting the application is announced by the department of planning to be at least 20 working days which is not appropriate for the vast majority of applications.