TEC-27
Green Roofs Understanding Their Benefits for Australia
Original Capes summary of historical EDG TEC-27 — Green Roofs Understanding Their Benefits for Australia — written for Australian technology practice, students and ESD reports.
TEC · Technology
Technology notes for building systems
TEC notes explained the hardware of ESD — photovoltaic cells, solar hot water, greywater, green roofs, fans, airtightness, chilled beams — without pretending a gadget is a design.
- 25 TEC notes
- PV & solar hot water
- Water treatment
- Green roofs
- IEQ
- Series code
- TEC
- Notes on this hub
- 25
- Start here
- TEC 4, 5, 11, 27
- Classic alias
- tec--technology
Gadgets after the section
The Environment Design Guide kept technology in its own drawer so that a photovoltaic array or a greywater plant had to answer a design question. TEC 4 still earns its keep as a plain-language account of how photovoltaic cells work. TEC 5 walks solar hot water options that Australian houses actually see — flat plate, evacuated tube, heat-pump cousins. TEC 11 separates greywater from blackwater so a student stops treating ‘recycled water’ as one tap.
Green roofs (TEC 27) and living walls (TEC 26) are filed here because they are structural and irrigation systems, not only ecology. Air leakage (TEC 23–24), circulating fans (TEC 25), chilled ceilings (TEC 18) and phase-change materials (TEC 20) sit beside CH2’s fame: the building used several of these ideas at once, which is why commissioning later mattered.
Today you still check the Clean Energy Regulator and CEC for solar, state health departments for recycled water, and the NCC for services energy. The TEC note is the briefing; the certificate is elsewhere.
Australian operating conditions
Dust, salt, hail, cyclones and a hard UV climate change the maintenance story for arrays, roofs and membranes. A green roof in Hobart is not a green roof in Townsville. A solar hot-water system that freezes on the Southern Tablelands is a different specification from one that stagnates in a Perth summer.
Read TEC notes with a climate file open. Then read the matching DES or paper — natural ventilation (EDG 80), BIPV (EDG 68 MS), Passivhaus airtightness (EDG 79) — so the hardware does not float free of the room.
Commissioning is part of the technology story
TEC notes are easy to misread as shopping lists. The better reading is: each system has a failure mode in Australian conditions. PV soiling and access. Solar hot water freeze or stagnation. Greywater without a health approval. Green roofs without a tap they can legally drink from. Fans specified without a winter story. Airtightness without a ventilation plan. Chilled beams without a humidity conversation. Phase-change tanks without a control sequence someone on the night shift understands.
CH2 bundled several of those systems. Later public reviews of its energy performance are not gossip; they are the adult version of TEC literacy. If you specify three novel systems, you have also specified a commissioning plan, a meter map, and a person who will still work at the organisation when the defects period ends.
Use TEC 4 and TEC 5 for houses. Use TEC 11 when the brief says ‘recycled water’ and you have not yet asked which stream. Use TEC 27 when a render shows a meadow on a podium. Use TEC 1 when the waste chapter is only a bin room. Then leave this hub for the DES note that asked why the system exists.
Technology notes mapped to common studio questions
| ID | Question | Watch-for |
|---|---|---|
| TEC 4 | How do PV cells work on buildings? | Inverters, fire, access |
| TEC 5 | Solar hot water options? | Freeze, stagnation, boost fuel |
| TEC 11 | Greywater vs blackwater? | Health approvals |
| TEC 27 | Green roofs in Australian climates? | Load, waterproofing, water |
| TEC 1 | Waste: source reduction first? | Design, not only bins |
Photo gateways
Full index
Every historical ID on this hub is a live page. Titles are cleaned for reading; slugs keep Wayback fidelity.
| ID | Title | Read |
|---|---|---|
| TEC-1 | Waste Management Source Reduction | Open |
| TEC-11 | Greywater and Blackwater Treatment Strategies | Open |
| TEC-12 | Emerging Technologies in Ventilation | Open |
| TEC-13 | Getting the Best Out of Refrigerant Cycle Chillers | Open |
| TEC-14 | Identifying and Implementing Energy Efficient Practices and Technologies to Existing Non Residential Buildings | Open |
| TEC-15 | GIS and Remote Sensing for Transport Land Use Site Planning and Landscape Planning | Open |
| TEC-16 | Energy Management and Occupant Well Being Through Integrated Lighting Control | Open |
| TEC-17 | Distributed Energy and Power | Open |
| TEC-18 | Chilled Ceilings and Beams | Open |
| TEC-19 | How Data Collection Can Help in Understanding Buildings in Operation | Open |
| TEC-20 | Phase Change Materials Overview | Open |
| TEC-21 | Applying Expert Opinion to Domestic Building Energy Assessment | Open |
| TEC-22 | Indoor Environment Quality Design and the Value of Facility Ecology | Open |
| TEC-23 | Air Leakage in Buildings Review of International Literature and Standards | Open |
| TEC-24 | Realising Air Leakage in Australian Housing | Open |
| TEC-25 | Circulating Fans for Summer and Winter Comfort and Indoor Energy Efficiency | Open |
| TEC-26 | Living Walls a Way to Green the Built Environment | Open |
| TEC-27 | Green Roofs Understanding Their Benefits for Australia | Open |
| TEC-28 | Towards Prefabricated Sustainable Housing an Introduction | Open |
| TEC-29 | Double Skln Facades | Open |
| TEC-4 | Photovoltaic Cells How They Work | Open |
| TEC-5 | Solar Hot Water | Open |
| TEC-6 | An Introduction to Ground Source Heat Pump Systems | Open |
| TEC-7 | An Overview of Operational Energy Minimisation Technologies from Green Building Challenge 98 | Open |
| TEC-9 | Electric Lighting Emerging Technologies Light Sources and Their Intrinsic Control Gear | Open |
Questions, answered first
- How do photovoltaic cells work on buildings?
- They convert sunlight into DC electricity. Buildings then need inverters, mounting, fire setbacks and a network agreement. TEC 4 is the historical EDG briefing; EDG 68 MS extends the idea to BIPV.
- How do green roofs perform in Australian climates?
- They can cut peak roof temperatures and delay runoff, but performance depends on climate, irrigation, soil depth and maintenance. TEC 27 is the EDG entry point; EDG 88 AA adds a simulation discussion.
- What is greywater and blackwater treatment in buildings?
- Greywater is relatively lightly contaminated wastewater from showers and laundries; blackwater includes toilet waste. TEC 11 treats them as different risk classes with different plant and approval paths.
This independent editorial guide is not affiliated with the Australian Institute of Architects or any ratings body. Historical Environment Design Guide note IDs, titles and authorship are cited for attribution only. Summaries are original educational rewrites — not a substitute for the original peer-reviewed notes, current NCC / NABERS / Green Star documentation, or professional advice. Trademarks remain with their owners.