Designing Australia's Next Generation of Care Homes in an All-Electric Future

Australia’s residential aged care sector is entering a period of significant growth. The number of Australians aged 85 and over is projected to double between 2018 and 2042, while permanent residential aged care numbers grew by 3.4% in FY25. As demand for new facilities increases, developers and design teams face growing pressure to deliver buildings that provide resident comfort, operational efficiency and long-term value.  

At the same time, Australia’s transition to all-electric buildings is reshaping the brief. From January 2026, the City of Sydney introduced a ban on gas connections in most new residential and commercial developments, with other NSW councils introducing similar planning rules. As electrification becomes the norm, designers are being asked to rethink how heating and cooling systems are specified from the outset.

For residential aged care, these decisions carry more weight. Care homes operate around the clock and need to maintain comfortable indoor environments for residents who may be more vulnerable to temperature extremes. Heating and cooling systems must deliver reliable, year-round performance while supporting efficient day-to-day operations over the building’s lifetime.  

Ground source heat pumps have the potential to play a key role in Australia’s next generation of care homes. Realising that potential starts with understanding the demands of the estate and assessing whether the site is suitable from the earliest stages of planning.

Designing for aged care

Residential aged care facilities combine multiple building functions under one roof. Accommodation, communal spaces, kitchens, clinical areas and support facilities all place different demands on heating and cooling systems. Add to that the need to maintain stable indoor temperatures for older people, whose health and wellbeing can be significantly affected by extreme heat or cold, and it becomes clear why heating and cooling strategies for these facilities deserve careful attention.

Care homes are also designed for longevity, so these decisions can influence energy consumption, maintenance requirements and running costs for years to come. For operators, they also shape day-to-day performance, affecting resident comfort, energy costs and overall management of the estate.

Where ground source fits

Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are well suited to buildings that require reliable heating and cooling throughout the year. Rather than drawing energy from outdoor air, they use the relatively stable temperatures below the ground as a consistent source of heat exchange, making them less affected by seasonal temperature swings.

For residential aged care, this can bring several practical benefits. Reliable year-round heating and cooling helps maintain comfortable indoor environments for residents, while improved energy efficiency can reduce operational energy demand over the lifetime of the building.

These systems also create a lasting energy asset for care home developments. While heat pumps and plant equipment will be replaced over time, the ground array can be designed to last for over 100 years, supporting successive generations of heating and cooling systems.

Starting with feasibility

GSHPs deliver the greatest value when they're considered early in a project. This gives developers, architects and consultants the opportunity to assess whether the technology is a good fit for the site before layouts, infrastructure and other aspects of the project become fixed.

Ground source might not be the right solution for every care home development. Every site is different, which is why feasibility is such an important part of the process. By assessing ground conditions alongside the building's heating and cooling requirements, project teams can establish whether ground source is technically and commercially viable before progressing into detailed design.

What existing projects have taught us

Genius Energy Lab has worked on a range of care and retirement developments internationally, helping to assess and integrate ground source energy from the earliest stages of planning.

One example is Auriens Chelsea, a luxury later-living development in London. Our team developed the ground source energy strategy as part of the wider Sydney Street Heat Network, designing an ambient loop network for a complex, space-constrained urban site. The project showed that, with the right engineering approach, this technology can be successfully integrated into even dense city-centre environments where land availability is often presumed to be a barrier.  

We have also supported one of the UK's first net-zero carbon retirement communities through geological assessment, feasibility studies and ground source system design. This helped to establish the technical case for ground source, giving the project team the confidence to progress with a solution tailored to the site's operational requirements.

Together, these projects highlight the value of understanding the site, the building and its energy demands before key project decisions are made.

What this means for Australian care homes

Australia's transition to all-electric buildings is encouraging project teams to consider heating and cooling alongside wider decisions about energy infrastructure, building design and long-term operation. For residential aged care, where buildings are expected to serve communities for decades, that joined-up approach can make a lasting difference.

Planning a new residential aged care development? Contact Genius Energy Lab to explore whether ground source is the right fit for your site.