Green Star FAQs

Project teams should justify their definition of common uses, major uses, and major sources in the submission using the below as a guide. 

Metering is to be provided to allow for monitoring of the relevant areas or functions of the project. In most cases floor-by-floor metering will suffice if the entire floor has a single use. If a floor has multiple uses, the different uses shall be metered e.g. in a floor be composed of office space and a seminar room, both spaces shall be separately sub-metered. If a floor has multiple tenants or owners, each tenancy or property shall also be separately sub-metered.

Where an energy load for a single item exceeds 5% of the total energy use for the building, or 100kW, it should be independently metered. Supplementary equipment can also be installed on the same measured circuit as the major use item. However, the total combined energy use of any systems connected to the major use item should not contribute more than 10kVA to the overall energy use.

Where a common water use consumes 10% of the project’s water use, these should be independently metered. 

The following examples are provided as guidance:
• In office facilities, consideration should be given to the usage patterns of the building. Floor-by-floor sub-metering is appropriate if the entirety of the floor is an office area. If a floor has a significant component that differs from the principal use, for example a number seminar rooms, than this space should be sub-metered as well.
• In retail facilities, consideration should be giving to separately meter staff only areas, such as warehousing or office area, from the retail areas and tenancies, and separately sub-metered from the back of house and central systems.
• In an education building, the metering strategy should address the multiple uses in the facility. The kitchen, computer classrooms, auditoriums, gyms, swimming pool, laboratories, study rooms, classrooms and lecture halls all have different usage patterns. As such, the metering strategy should separately sub-meter those.
• In residential buildings, an effective mechanism to monitor energy and water consumption data should allow for the reporting of daily usage data. ‘Smart Metering’ systems supplied to all units is an acceptable method of meeting the requirements for distinct uses.
• In a building such as an industrial warehouse with a large floor plate, energy meters should be provided separately for lighting consumption, and other power consumption.

GBCA notes project teams may install metering above and beyond the examples given above. 

Submit a question by selecting an option below: