# Creating Dwellings and Non-Residential Spaces
All dwellings and non-residential spaces must be created before the correct questions and credits appear on the BESS category pages. The dwellings and spaces determine which pathways, questions and credits apply to your project.
# Dwellings
To complete the Dwellings table you will need the floor plans and elevations and other supporting documentation. You will also need to identify ‘similar dwellings’ in the project.
‘Similar dwellings' can be grouped together to streamline data input. How dwellings are entered affects your input options in the Water and Energy categories.
‘Similar dwellings’ are dwellings that are both ‘thermally similar’ and share similar systems, such as heating and cooling, hot water, rainwater connections, and water fittings and fixtures. Similar dwellings must be in the same building.
If 'thermally similar' dwellings have different hot water, or heating and cooling systems, or different fittings and fixtures, these should be grouped separately.
Once you have determined the groupings, enter each group into BESS, with one column representing each dwelling group. If some of the details are the same, you can use the ‘Select All’ function to make bulk edits.
For a group of dwellings, enter the average dwelling area (not the combined area).
'Thermally similar' refers to the performance of the building envelope, the orientation of the dwelling and its living spaces. ‘Thermally similar’ dwellings have similar orientation, similar heating and cooling loads, are of a similar size and have a similar number of external exposed surfaces (walls, floor, and roof).
Examples of thermally similar groupings are provided in the images here.
Dual Occupancy (not thermally similar due to orientation) - enter as two dwellings
Townhouse Development - Rate the book end houses (3 exposed sides) and 1 internal
Medium Density (5-10 stories) - Rate Ground floor, middle floor and top floor
High Density (10+ stories) - Rate half the apartments across 5 floors including ground floor, middle floor, top floor and two others
# Non-Residential Spaces
If your project has a non-residential component, you must set up the non-residential spaces. What you input here determines which non-residential questions and credits apply to your project.
The non-residential space types are:
| Office building | Class 5 |
|---|---|
| Shop | Class 6 |
| Lab / Warehouse | Class 7 or Class 8 |
| Unconditioned Warehouse / factory | Class 7 or Class 8 (unconditioned) |
| Public building | Class 9 - hospitals, schools, aged care facilities |
| Other building | Class 10 |
| Unconditioned Showroom / machine shop | Class 6 or Class 8 (unconditioned) |
For Class 3 spaces, please contact the relevant council planning department to discuss how it should be input into BESS. These are most commonly included as either apartments or Other building depending on the design.
You can group spaces if they share the same characteristics. Grouped spaces must be in the same building. Enter each group into BESS, with one column representing each non-residential group. If some of the details are the same, you can use the ‘Select All’ function to make bulk edits.
Default space names are provided. You may leave these as default or modify using your own naming conventions, e.g. Office1.1, Office1.2 etc.
The area input for grouped spaces is the gross floor area of one representative (averaged) space. Alternatively, enter the combined area and set quantity to one. Do not include car parks.
How the spaces are grouped and the inputs selected for each space type will affect inputs in Water and Energy.
If different spaces in the development have different hot water, or heating and cooling systems, or different water fittings and fixtures or rainwater connections, these will need to be separated out into different groupings.
The Energy section of BESS allows for a Deem to Satisfy (DTS) method or for entering JV3 modelling results. If you are using the Energy Deem to Satisfy (DTS) method then simply use similar water systems to group your spaces. If you are using JV3 modelling inputs, then group by modelling results and similar water systems – i.e. if all spaces are modelled together, then all have a similar energy approach; if some offices are modelled separate to others, then they are not similar.