Pick up where you left off.
Course Content
Cool and Comfortable Without an Open Window
When the window has to stay shut, comfort is a design decision, not a bigger air conditioner.
Designing for comfort on a noisy, exposed or humid site without relying on an open window. How to name the constraint precisely, keep heat out before you pay to remove it, move air through secure, acoustic and filtered paths, and meet the ventilation, make-up air and condensation requirements a sealed house still has.
Secure card checkout. Tax invoice emailed.
4 modules, 2 case studies, final quiz and certificate.
Introduction and objectives
Why a shut window is a design constraint rather than a reason for more equipment, and the four things you will be able to do on your next house.
Why the Windows Stay Shut
Noise, security and privacy, smoke and particles, humid nights and client preference, and what each one rules out and still allows.
Keep the Heat Out First
The roof, glazing and shading where the window cannot open, when thermal mass helps, internal gains and what a sealed house does with heat.
Moving Air and Heat Without an Open Window
Secure and acoustic ventilation paths, balanced filtered ventilation, ceiling fans, night purging and air conditioning sized and zoned properly.
Comfort, Compliance and the Running Cost
The ventilation requirement and its mechanical alternative, make-up air, condensation, the energy budget, commissioning and documentation.
The main road house and the bushfire site
A sealed house with no make-up air that pulled the heater flue backwards, and a bushfire design that gave away free night cooling.
Key takeaways
Six habits to carry into the next house on a hard site.
Final quiz and certificate
Ten practice scenarios. Pass and the certificate goes straight into your dashboard.
Intermediate. For designers who document Class 1 houses on noisy, exposed, overlooked or humid sites. Covers naming the constraint, heat exclusion, ventilation and air movement without an open window, and the ventilation, condensation and energy provisions. It is technical education, not a substitute for an acoustic consultant, a mechanical services designer, a bushfire practitioner, an accredited energy assessor or your certifier, and names no product or supplier.
Written for the people who design houses on sites where the window cannot do the work.
Building Designer
You choose the comfort strategy and document the ventilation route the house relies on.
Residential Drafter
You draw the openings, the shading and the vents that decide whether the room complies.
Practice Principal
You carry the complaint when a compliant house turns out to be uncomfortable to live in.
Renovation and Extension Designer
You add rooms to houses on main roads and small lots, where the old openings no longer work.
Project Home Designer
Your standard plans land on noisy and humid lots, so the constraint has to be designed in.
Where this hour goes on your record.
National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA 2021) performance criteria this course aligns with:
Site, cultural and contextual analysis
Building science in conceptual design
Environmental sustainability across the lifecycle
Sustainable environmental systems
Compliant project documentation
| If you are | How it is recorded |
|---|---|
| A building designer | 1 formal CPD point. Your certificate, the learning outcomes, the module outline and your quiz result are kept in your dashboard, so you can show what you studied if your CPD is audited. |
| An architect | 1 formal CPD point. Aligned with NSCA 2021 performance criteria PC26, PC28, PC31, PC33 and PC46. |
| A drafter, renovation or project home designer | 1 hour of CPD on residential comfort and ventilation, recorded on your certificate for your registration body or scheme. |
CPD On Demand is not a registered training organisation and courses are not accredited by any registration body. Each course is aligned with the relevant competency frameworks and gives you the records to evidence it. CPD rules differ by registration body and state, so check with yours if you are unsure.
Pairs well with.
The Breathable Wall: Understanding Condensation Risks in NCC 2025
Condensation in a tight envelope, in depth.
Beyond 7 Stars: Passive Design Tactics That Actually Work in NatHERS
The passive design moves that keep heat out, climate by climate.
What’s the Simplest Compliant Way to Meet the Energy Requirements for This House?
The energy budget that equipment-led comfort makes harder to meet.
Before you enrol.
Design comfort into houses that cannot rely on an open window, in one self-paced hour.
$99, 60 minutes, certificate on completion.