The general meeting will start at 6.15pm, with the guest speaker at 7.30pm. 

Abstract:

As a result of the energy crisis in 1973, the Australian building industry was required to reduce the energy essential to heat and cool the buildings. Therefore, some architects and building designers firstly looked overseas for samples of energy efficient buildings, both passively and actively solar heated. From mid 1970 onwards, first samples of passive solar heated solar buildings were now constructed in Australia, including Tasmania.

This presentation looks at early design and construction of solar heated buildings and how Tasmania’s building designers developed and adapted solar heating systems to maximise their system efficiency for the climate in Tasmania. Early American passive solar design guidelines using thermal mass and northern glazing in buildings helped to design early passive solar houses here in Australia.

By measuring and analysing the thermal performance of constructed solar houses, building designers were able to assess and to improve their thermal performance. Additionally, the release of the thermal National Energy Rating Simulation tool ‘AccuRate and First Rate’ in Australia in 2004, building designers were now able to calculate the thermal performance early in the design stage of the buildings, without having to rely only on ambiguous solar design guidelines.

This presentation shows many solar houses that have been constructed in Tasmania between 1975 and 2024 and underlines the long learning process architects and building designers went through. Many different passive solar systems were designed and adopted throughout the years with different thermal performance success rates.