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NatHERS Climate Zone Boundaries

Published: 19 December 2010 / Amendment 1 / BCA 2011

...excerpt only - see the bottom of the page link to download the full text.

DTS (BCA) Climate Zones

There are only eight DTS (BCA) Climate Zones in Australia, five of which apply in Western Australia (Climates Zones 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 as shown opposite), and typically their boundaries follow Local Government boundaries.

The commonly used Climate Zone 5 encompasses the entire Metropolitan area, extends up the coast to Northampton and as far south as Nannup (and then along the south coast). 

NatHERS Climate Zone Boundaries

Just like the DTS Climate Zones, NatHERS (National House Energy Rating Scheme) Climates Zones define the climatic environment used for AccuRate, FirstRate and BERS for Modelling.

Each Climate Zone is given a Mega Joule (MJ) band that defines the Star Rating achieved. For more information about Star Bands refer to the Local Practice Note in the sidebar.

There are 69 NatHERS Climate Zones in Australia, 21 in Western Australia, and 4 in the Metropolitan/Peel area (Perth, Bickley, Swanbourne and Mandurah).

The NatHERS Climate Zone map (see opposite or go to www.nathers.gov.au/about/climate-zones.html) does not have the clarity needed to identify Climate Zone boundaries. This makes it difficult for salespeople, schedulers, estimators and other people who don’t use Modelling to correlate a building site with a Climate Zone. The schedule provided on the following pages has been developed to enable these people to cross reference local government areas, suburbs and town names, and WA postcodes with NatHERS Climate Zones.

Climate Zone Location, Postcode and Number

NatHERS Climate Zones are made up of a cluster of postcode areas that use climatic data from one reference postcode. The reference postcodes for WA are listed in the NatHERS WA Climate Zones summary (see bottom left). The “location” of the reference postcode becomes the “location” for all postcode areas in that Climate Zone. For example, Perth is the reference “location” for the 84 postcodes that form that Climate Zone 13 (see Tables 1 & 2 over page).

In some case secondary and tertiary Climate Zone numbers are shown for a “location”. This reflects the size of some Climate Zones, and the reference “location” may be a long way from a specific building site. In these situations the Modelling software prompts the assessor to determine if another Climate Zone may better reflect the building site climate.

Local Government Areas

Until now industry has associated a building site with a specific local government area. NatHERS Climate Zones introduce another variable because postcode areas can overlap several local government areas.

For example, (see Table 2) the Perth “location” (Climate Zone 13) Local Government areas include the City of Canning, Town of Cambridge, City of Belmont, City of Bayswater (and others). Builders and designers will need to be aware that the same Local Government area will not always mean the same Climate Zone.

Assessor Information

The assessor uses the building site postal address postcode (75 Troy Street Applecross WA 6153). This information should be provided on the documents submitted for assessment.

When the assessor enters the site specific postcode the software automatically nominates the Climate Zone that is to be used for the assessment.

NatHERS Climate Zone Boundary Tables

Three boundary reference options are provided:

  • Table 1 references Local Government areas and City/Town/Suburb to Climate Zones.
  • Table 2 references Climate Zones to Local Government areas and City/Town/Suburb.
  • Table 3 references postcodes to Local Government areas and Climate Zones.

Click the link below to download the full text version of the Local Practice Note: NatHERS Climate Zone Boundaries.

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