With the introduction of Whole of Home energy objectives (H6P2) in the National Construction Code (NCC) 2022 edition, two main Deemed to Satisfy compliance methodologies have been added to the NCC to show compliance with these requirements.
While Hero predominantly focuses on compliance pathways using the NatHERS pathway (i.e. 2(a) in the above image), in Hero v4.0 we have integrated the calculations and assessment of Whole of Home Energy Usage utilising the Elemental Provisions (commonly just called DTS) pathway (i.e. 2(b) in the above image) as per the methodology outlined in the NCC 2022 Standard for Whole of Home Efficiency Factors.
This allows Hero users to determine whether the NatHERS or Elemental Provision pathway is the most suitable for their project, and pursue compliance for either option.
It should be noted that the Element Provision pathway for Whole of Home (simply called "WoH DTS" in Hero) comes with a variety of restrictions and limitations, including that noted in (2b) above that is only relates to buildings with a total floor area less than 500m2. However there are additional restrictions and limitations of the Elemental Provision method, including a limited number of systems that can be assessed using this method (e.g. Instantaneous electric hot-water are not supported by this method) along with a range of performance standards that will never allow a compliant solution. In these instances, the NatHERS WoH compliance pathway should be considered.
Enabling WoH DTS (Elemental Provisions) in Hero
To turn on the assessment of DTS WoH compliance in Hero, you must first have enabled Appliances in the Project Data-grid or Appliance tab, and then you must enable the "WoH DTS calculation" setting in the Setup section of the Appliances tab.
When this setting is enabled, the interface will immediately begin assessing DTS WoH compliance and indicate Compliant, Non-Compliant or Not Available (NA) status in the Status Bar's results area.
The above image shows a compliant DTS Score for the project (along with NatHERS WoH)
Hovering the Results area of the Status Bar will show the WoH DTS Score and Requirements (in the example below the WoH DTS Score is 1.0 with a DTS Compliance Requirement of 2.1).
The DTS WoH Results will also be addditionally shown in the Results Summary of the Appliance section (the image below showing a DTS Score of 1.0 with a DTS Compliance Requirement of 2.1 indicating Compliant for DTS).
When the project is non-compliant with the DTS requirement the DTS Icon in the WoH section of the Status Bar will show a ! to indicate non-compliance as per the below image.
The results summary section will likewise show non-compliant as per the image below.
As mentioned earlier, the DTS WoH compliance pathway has a range of limitations, including that there are a range of systems (such as instantaneous electric hot-water) and performance levels (such as poor performing gas heaters in cold climates) where there are no achievable DTS compliance scores. In these instances, Hero will show a "NA" not available/applicable icon.
Exporting Hero WoH DTS Results to ABCB Excel WoH DTS Calculator Spreadsheet
To assist in demonstrating compliance with the NCC 2022 WoH Elemental Provisions pathway, the ABCB have produced a WoH Excel Calculator (available at: https://www.abcb.gov.au/resources/filter/calculators). If you have enabled WoH DTS calculations in Hero, you can export your project's appliances and information directly into that Excel spreadsheet using the Export "triple dot" button on the DTS results button in the Appliances Results Summary section.
For multi-dwelling projects, you can export individual dwellings using the Dwellings sub-menu:
Once the export process has been completed, an Excel template file will be created that is pre-populated with the required information for compliance submission, such as shown in the example below.
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