A change to the National Construction Code means all newly built homes will need to have a minimum thermal efficiency rating of seven stars.
After bumping up her home by two stars, Bianca Knox said this small heater now gets her through the Canberra winter."Since then, we've really felt the difference in how heat holds in the room," she said.A new benchmark "A seven-star house requires 30 per cent less energy per square metre to heat and cool across the year … equates to hundreds of dollars in savings," she said.
"The gaps in Canberra homes add up to often be equivalent to a 40 centimetre square window being open all year long."