Pick up where you left off.
Course Content
The 5 Whole-of-Home Assumptions That Are Most Likely to Fail
The assumptions that got your last house through Whole-of-Home are the ones sending this one back.
And cost you time or rework. Five reasonable assumptions that fail under Whole-of-Home: that minor changes will not matter, that lighting plans are just documentation, that services come later, that the assessor owns the outcome, and that a design that passed once will pass again. Why each one fails, the rework it causes, and when to pause and ask before it is built into the drawings.
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7 modules on five assumptions, final quiz and certificate.
Introduction and objectives
Why Whole-of-Home rework usually starts with a reasonable assumption, and why this hour looks at assumptions, not calculations.
Why Whole-of-Home Is Catching Designers Off Guard
See why fabric and services are now assessed as one system, and why designs that barely changed are still getting pushback.
Assumption #1: “Minor design changes won’t affect compliance”
Know why layout tweaks, glazing adjustments and equipment swaps act as system level changes, and how small ones add up.
Assumption #2: “Lighting plans are just documentation”
See how fixture counts and layouts become lighting inputs, and why an incomplete plan brings in conservative defaults.
Assumption #3: “Services decisions sit downstream from design”
Settle hot water, heating and cooling and any future battery allowance early, because the rating is built on them.
Assumption #4: “The assessor owns compliance outcomes”
Find where your drawings, schedules and gaps shape the result, and why the assessor models your data, not your intent.
Assumption #5: “If it passed once, it will pass again”
Know why a repeat design can rate differently on a new site, or under updated rules and software.
Going forward, key takeaways, quiz and certificate
When to pause and ask, and how early engagement cuts reassessment cycles. Then ten questions, and the certificate goes straight into your dashboard.
Intermediate. For designers, principals and documenters who already prepare houses for a Whole-of-Home assessment. Covers five common assumptions about design changes, lighting plans, services, responsibility and repeat designs, and when to seek guidance. It teaches no modelling or calculation, and it is general professional guidance, not legal advice.
Written for the people whose drawings the rating is built on.
Architects
You lead the design, and a detail you treated as settled can come back as a late request from the assessor.
Building designers
You document the house the assessor models, and every gap in the set is filled with a default you did not choose.
Energy assessors
You model what the drawings say, and spend hours chasing the lighting, services and changes nobody told you about.
Small practice principals
You carry the fee when a job goes round again, and need the team to stop repeating the same assumptions.
Document coordinators
You keep the drawings, schedules and specifications in step, and a mismatch between them is what triggers the questions.
Where this hour goes on your record.
National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA 2021) performance criteria this course aligns with:
Whole life carbon of materials and systems
Budget and timeframe against codes and requirements
Energy and sustainability over the project lifecycle
Integrating thermal and environmental systems
Performance standards for materials and systems
| If you are | How it is recorded |
|---|---|
| A building designer | 1 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 PC10, PC20, PC31, PC33 and PC45. |
| An energy assessor, practice principal or document coordinator | 1 hour of CPD on Whole-of-Home assumptions and documentation risk, recorded on your certificate for your accrediting organisation, professional body or your own records. |
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.
When a Design Change Triggers a Whole-of-Home Re-Rating
Which changes reopen the rating, and how to time them so they do not.
Whole-of-Home Compliance: What Building Designers Are Actually Responsible For
Assumption four in depth: where your responsibility ends and the assessor’s begins.
Insulation Documentation That Gets Approved
The documentation habits reviewers look for, applied to the building fabric.
Before you enrol.
Catch the five assumptions before they cost you a re-rating, in one self-paced hour.
$99, 60 minutes, certificate on completion.