April Newsletter

First­ly, under­stand­ing the build­ing design for cli­mate. Design­ing for cli­mate requires that homes be designed or mod­i­fied to ensure that the occu­pants remain ther­mal­ly com­fort­able year-round.  Pas­sive  design, work­ing with the cli­mate, not against it.

Aus­tralian cli­mate zones:

The eight cli­mate zones used by build­ing code of Aus­tralia (BCA), each cli­mate zone has dis­tinct­ly dif­fer­ent design and con­struc­tion require­ments. With­in each main zone are many region­al sub-zones deter­mined by geo­graph­ic fea­tures includ­ing wind pat­terns and ele­va­tion above sea lev­el.

NatHERS (Nation­wide House Ener­gy Rat­ing Scheme) iden­ti­fies 69 of these sub-zones, which the BCA address­es and which can be called up by post­code.

https://youtu.be/Du4gSvFazWs

Inside tem­per­a­ture, air move­ment, and com­fort­a­bil­i­ty is attrib­uted to design, loca­tion, and mate­ri­als used dur­ing con­struc­tion.  Sun ori­en­ta­tion, wind direc­tions are some of the exter­nal fac­tors, while, ven­ti­la­tion, insu­la­tion, and care­ful build­ing mate­r­i­al choos­es are inside fac­tors. 

Zone 1: Hot humid sum­mer, warm win­ter 

• High humid­i­ty with a degree of ‘dry sea­son’ 
• Mod­er­ate to high tem­per­a­tures year round 
• Low to mod­er­ate sea­son­al tem­per­a­ture vari­a­tion 
• Min­i­mal diur­nal (day–night) tem­per­a­ture range 

 Zone 2: Warm humid sum­mer, mild win­ter 

• High humid­i­ty with a def­i­nite ‘dry sea­son’ 
• Hot to very hot sum­mers with mild win­ters 
• Dis­tinct summer/winter sea­sons 
• Mod­er­ate to low diur­nal (day–night) tem­per­a­ture range, which can vary sig­nif­i­cant­ly between regions (e.g. inland to coastal)

 Zone 3: Hot dry sum­mer, warm win­ter 

• Dis­tinct wet and dry sea­sons 
• Low rain­fall and low to mod­er­ate humid­i­ty 
• No extreme cold but can be cool in win­ter 
• Hot to very hot sum­mers com­mon 
• Sig­nif­i­cant day–night tem­per­a­ture range 

 Zone 4: Hot dry sum­mer, cool win­ter 

• Dis­tinct sea­sons with low humid­i­ty all year round 
• High diur­nal (day–night) tem­per­a­ture range 
• Low rain­fall 
• Very hot sum­mers com­mon with hot, dry winds 
• Cool win­ters with cold dry winds

 Zone 5: Warm tem­per­ate 

• Mod­er­ate diur­nal (day–night) tem­per­a­ture range near coast to high diur­nal range inland 
• Four dis­tinct sea­sons: sum­mer and win­ter can exceed human com­fort range; spring and autumn are ide­al for human com­fort 
• Mild win­ters with low humid­i­ty 
• Hot to very hot sum­mers with low to mod­er­ate humid­i­ty 

• Wide­ly vari­able solar access and cool­ing breeze direc­tions and pat­terns 

 Zone 6: Mild tem­per­ate 

• Low day–night tem­per­a­ture range near coast, high range inland 
• Four dis­tinct sea­sons: sum­mer and win­ter exceed human com­fort range; spring and autumn are ide­al for human com­fort 
• Mild to cool win­ters with low humid­i­ty 
• Hot to very hot sum­mers, mod­er­ate humid­i­ty 

 Zone 7: Cool tem­per­ate 

• Low humid­i­ty, high diur­nal (day–night) tem­per­a­ture range 
• Four dis­tinct sea­sons: sum­mer and win­ter exceed human com­fort range; high­ly vari­able spring and autumn con­di­tions (range increas­ing with cli­mate change) 
• Cold to very cold win­ters with major­i­ty of rain­fall (decreas­ing with cli­mate change) 
• Hot dry sum­mers (increas­ing with cli­mate change) 

 Zone 8: Alpine 

• Low humid­i­ty, high diur­nal tem­per­a­ture range 
• Four dis­tinct sea­sons: win­ter exceeds human com­fort range and will like­ly con­tin­ue to do so under cli­mate change 
• Cold to very cold win­ters pro­vid­ing major­i­ty of rain­fall; some snow 

Warm to hot, dry sum­mers; high­ly vari­able spring and autumn con­di­tions 

The con­trol­ling of air pres­sure is key to sev­er­al impor­tance per­for­mance aspects of the build­ing sys­tem and there­fore the dry­ing of the build­ing after a water loss or fire event.  Air carrier’s mois­ture which impacts mate­ri­als long-term per­for­mance (ser­vice­abil­i­ty) and struc­tur­al integri­ty (dura­bil­i­ty), behav­iour in fire (smoke spread), indoor air qual­i­ty (dis­tri­b­u­tion of pol­lu­tants and micro­bial reser­voirs) and ther­mal ener­gy.

Under­stand­ing the sig­nif­i­cant of the com­plex flow and pres­sure dis­tri­b­u­tion prob­lems cre­at­ed by the inter­ac­tion of the build­ing enve­lope with the mechan­i­cal sys­tems often used in the mit­i­ga­tion peri­od, can lead to changes in the mate­r­i­al struc­ture, dura­bil­i­ty, and per­for­mance.

Exterior Building Considerations

• Build­ing con­struc­tion method
• Build­ing mate­ri­als
• Build­ing secu­ri­ty
• Sub­floor con­struc­tion
• Exter­nal fac­tors includ­ing flo­ra.

Interior Building Considerations

• Past build­ing inci­dents
• Air flow man­age­ment sys­tem
• Fau­na rep­re­sen­ta­tion (microbes)
• Build­ing mate­ri­als
• Insu­la­tion
• Con­tent mate­ri­als
• Tox­i­c­i­ty lev­els, tox­ins
• Con­fig­u­ra­tion of inter­nal spaces
• Hid­den pock­ets
• Occu­pants.

Pro­fes­sion­al equip­ment uses in appli­ca­tion may change from sea­son to sea­son, area to area, and tech­ni­cian to tech­ni­cian.  Lim­i­ta­tions around equip­ment use and the technician’s edu­ca­tion can deter­mine the use of each indi­vid­ual piece of equip­ment.  Stan­dards show, it is at the judge­ment of the pro­fes­sion­al for when using equip­ment based on sev­er­al char­ac­ter­is­tics but not lim­it­ed to:

• Claim type,
• Avail­abil­i­ty of equip­ment,
• Cat­e­go­ry of loss,
• Train­ing and edu­ca­tion,
• Build­ing and con­tent mate­ri­als,
• Equip­ment restric­tions,
• Lia­bil­i­ties,
• Con­straints and restric­tions,
• Envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors,
• Reme­di­a­tion prin­ci­ples,
• Respon­si­bil­i­ties.

CARSI con­tin­ues to devel­op spe­cialised cours­es based around these prin­ci­ples. The one train­ing mod­el fits all is back­ward think­ing, train­ing requires a dif­fer­ent approach with local evi­dence-based results. The prin­ci­ples of reme­di­a­tion may be uni­ver­sal, but the appli­ca­tion meth­ods will change.  Aus­tralia deserves the recog­ni­tion and the spe­cif­ic train­ing mod­els based off local­ly sourced mate­ri­als and weath­er events. 

Do you spe­cialise in the clean­ing and restora­tion indus­try?

Do you under­stand how weath­er changes your dry­ing con­di­tions?

Do you under­stand the equip­ment you’re work­ing with? And more impor­tant­ly, do your on-site tech­ni­cians under­stand the equip­ment?

We are cur­rent­ly look­ing for expres­sions of inter­est to help build the  “Spe­cial­is­ing in your Zone”  series.  Please con­tact our office @ support@carsi.com.au if you’re a sup­pli­er, con­trac­tor, edu­ca­tor, or some­one spe­cial­is­ing in this field.