NCC 2022 Software Transitional Arrangements

Using NatHERS software from 1 October 2023

The National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 was officially adopted on 1 May 2023 with a transition period for energy efficiency provisions to 30 September 2023. During this time, the provisions from either NCC 2019 or NCC 2022 could be applied.

Several states and territories have delayed adoption of the updated energy efficiency requirements or set an extended transition period beyond 30 September 2023.

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has a useful table referencing adoption dates across states and territories.

Temporary requirements under the SAP

Normally, the NatHERS Software Accreditation Protocol (SAP) requires that new ratings are commenced in the most recent software version, unless there is a prior written request from the relevant regulator.

To help manage and streamline requests for assessors during the transition to NCC 2022, there will be a blanket, coordinated approach permitting the use of older software versions for NatHERS assessments as required.

The NatHERS Administrator has agreed statements with relevant states and territories which will be considered as ‘a written request’. The statements will become available from the authority responsible for administering building regulations (see below links). 

Both the CSIRO and software providers have confirmed they can provide and operate two different software versions at the same time.

Heating and cooling limits

Due to updates to heating and cooling load limits in the NCC 2022 compliant version of Chenath, it is recommended that the relevant software and certificate be used for the applicable NCC 2019 or NCC 2022 requirements for jurisdictions that intend to apply the heating and cooling load limits.

Learn more about the new heating and cooling load limits here.

For more information

The information on this page is also available as an official statement from NatHERS here.

Assessors requiring evidence of a written statement should contact their local jurisdictions on the below links:

• Australian Capital Territory Government
• NSW Government
• Northern Territory Government
• Queensland Government
• South Australian Government  
• Tasmanian Government
• Victorian Government
• West Australian Government

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 2022.
• 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.