Software updates

The National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 energy efficiency changes are being adopted from 1 May 2023, with a transition period to 1 October 2023. 

Please note that state and territory governments may modify the adoption dates or requirements — this helpful table highlights when states and territories are transitioning to NCC 2022.

Changes include an increase to a 7-star minimum thermal rating and the inclusion of a new Whole of Home energy budget, including major fixed appliances and on-site energy generation and storage.

The changes require updates to all NatHERS tools, which are currently progressing through the re-accreditation process.

The NatHERS administrator is working with jurisdictions who have an extended transition to NCC 2022 to support access to older versions of NatHERS as/if required.

Get ready for NCC 2022

Benchmark tool

AccuRate Home is fully accredited and can be used to produce ratings and certificates for all new dwellings, including apartments, town houses and detached homes. It can be used for regulatory purposes for both thermal (building shell) and Whole of Home assessments.

The software has new features and data sets incorporating thermal bridging changes for steel-framed dwellings and updated heating and cooling load limits. 

Currently, AccuRate Sustainability is still available for use with NCC 2019.

Commercial tools

NatHERS commercial software tools, including Hero, FirstRate5 and BERS Pro are at various stages of the accreditation and approval process.

Please see the below table for further information.

Summary of accreditation status and use of NCC software (unless stated differently by your jurisdiction):  

*NCC 2019 will not be updated to include: new climate files or starbands, new heating and cooling loads, Whole of Home, thermal bridging, or WERSlink (new windows library).

Contact the FirstRate5 team, the BERS Pro team or the Hero team for more information on specific software and release dates.

Whole of Home assessments

The NatHERS Benchmark tool AccuRate Home can produce Whole of Home ratings and certificates which are NCC 2022 compliant.

The team has received two applications for Whole of Home accreditation and are progressing these as a priority.

While commercial tools continue to move through this process, for regulatory purposes for Whole of Home assessments you can use AccuRate Home, or the NCC W-o-H 'elemental’ deemed-to-satisfy provisions J3D14 of Volume One or 13.6.2 of the Housing Provisions, which are supported by the ABCB’s NCC Whole of Home calculator. 

The NCC and NCC tools such as the Whole of Home calculator are available free on the ABCB website.

Alternatively, you can use the BERS Pro beta tool.

Conducting an assessment from 1 October 2023

The NatHERS administrator is working with jurisdictions who have an extended transition to NCC 2022 to support access to older versions of NatHERS software as/if required.

As software tools become accredited, regulatory authorities will identify NatHERS compliant software by the new NatHERS Certificate featuring the Whole of Home rating sections.

Complying with various software

NCC 2019 (from 1 October 2023)

If you are complying with NCC 2019 you must use (unless stated differently in your jurisdiction):

• accredited software based on Chenath Engine v3.21
• thermal only NatHERS Certificates
• NatHERS Technical Note Version June 2019
• heating and cooling load limits of ABCB Standard 2019.1
• additional requirements for apartments detailed in clause J0.2 of the NCC 2019 Volume One
• additional requirements for houses detailed in subclause 3.12.0(a)(i) of the NCC 2019 Volume Two.

NCC 2022 (from 1 October 2023)

If you are complying with NCC 2022 you must use (unless stated differently in your jurisdiction):

• accredited software based on Chenath Engine v3.22 or v3.23, when they become available 
• the new NatHERS Certificate which includes the Whole of Home rating feature (note an alternate compliance pathway can be used for the Whole of Home assessment)
• NatHERS Technical Note Version September 2023
• heating and cooling load limits of ABCB Standard 2022
• additional thermal and Whole of Home requirements for apartments detailed in Section J2D2 of NCC 2022 Volume One
• additional thermal requirements and Whole of Home requirements for houses detailed in Specification 42 of the NCC 2022 Volume Two.