Proposed Hotel Development @ Surry Hills, NSW – JV3 assessment

Services

ESD report – JV3 energy assessment – Green Star rating – Daylight modelling – Feasibility assessment

Our added value

We were engaged to provide ESD services for obtaining building permit. The building had heritage brick cavity walls on 2 faces of the building which was required to be kept from new works, meaning it wasn’t possible to add insulation to it. The other challenge was to get energy compliance with metal framed windows in the lower ground floor and ground floor levels. We first undertake feasibility assessment to determine the best energy source and HVAC system for the development. High efficiency water-cooled chillers and condensing boilers were selected for the development and allowed us to save both on cooling and heating.

JV3 assessment was performed to achieve compliance with Section J. Thermal bridging of metal frames were treated with R0.4 thermal breaks and windows with high performance was selected to offset the high heating demand of the spaces with heritage walls. Basements were thermally separated from the rest of the building using a rather tick rigid insulation.

Green Star rating minimum expectation required additional 50% fresh air rates over the commercial area which was a challenge. Demand-controlled ventilation over the lower ground floor and ground floor restaurants significantly decreased the heating demand required to preheat the fresh air. Using lighting controls and motion sensors, we were able to obtain both Green Star minimum expectation and NCC energy efficiency compliance.

Daylight modelling was used to obtain NCC compliance with Part F4 which required all hotel rooms to achieve Average Daylight Factor of at least 2%. Since changing the existing windows on the heritage walls were not an option, these rooms were excluded from the assessment by the council. Green Star requirement for the natural light over the commercial area was undertaken which required increasing SHGC of the windows. Hopefully, energy compliance stayed intact and no additional measures need to be taken.