Mr Michael Ambrose

Michael joined CSIRO in 1992 and is a senior experimental scientist in CSIRO’s Energy Business Unit. He leads projects for industry and the Australian government, involving building energy efficiency, life cycle analysis and sustainable urban development.
Michael is currently leading trials to explore the streamlining of in the field data collection of dwelling dimensional data that is required for the energy rating of these existing dwellings. This involves the use of LiDAR technology to enable direct import of dimensional information into CSIRO's energy rating software.
Michael has just completed a major national study on the air tightness of newly constructed dwellings. The results show a significant improvement in the performance of our new dwellings compared to an earlier study that Michael also undertook. The results from this study will directly impact the development of energy efficiency regulations and how air tightness is accounted for in energy efficiency modelling.
Michael continues to undertake analysis of house energy rating data obtained from the Universal Certificates (UC) that are created as part of the NatHERS energy efficiency compliance requirements for new houses contained within the National Construction Code. Almost 1.5 million UC’s are in the database and this is allowing unprecedented insight into how new house designs are achieving their energy efficiency requirements. As part of this work Michael has developed interactive data visualisation dashboards that allow users to explore the data geospatially to discover area specific trends and practices.
Michael is a regular contributor to The Conversation and is often heard on radio providing expert opinion on how to improve the energy efficiency of our homes.