The Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation, the Australian Greenhouse Office, building material suppliers and others have provided funding for University of Tasmania to conduct the No Bills and Five Star Houses Project, the design and monitoring of three-purposed designed test houses in Hobart, Tasmania.

Since finalising sponsorship arrangements has delayed the start date of the No Bills Project Houses, the three test cells are being built to ensure that relevant performance data can be collected during winter in 2006 and used to assess the rating program, AccuRate this year.

The specific research objectives of the test cells extension to the larger project are to:

• compare the over thermal performance of a building with a timber framed platform floor to that with a concrete slab on ground floor;

• establish the heating energy required to maintain human thermal comfort in each cells and compare it with the results predicted by modelling; and

• measure the thermal performance of a range of timber assemblies individually and as systems.

These objective raise specific research questions;

• What is the thermal transmission through the differing floor systems?

• What is the thermal storage of the differing floor systems?

• What is the air leakage & fabric permeability of the differing floor systems?

• What is the thermal performance of a ventilated enclosed sub floor and a ventilated un-enclosed sub floor as compared to slab on ground floor?