FirstRate5® is Victoria's leading residential thermal performance assessment software. It is used by the majority of industry to rate the energy efficiency compliance of residential dwellings to the 6-star standard under the National Construction Code of Australia (NCC). The standard applies to all new homes and major renovations and extensions

FirstRate5® is an easy-to-use tool with a graphic user interface that enables designers and thermal performance assessors to quickly generate the geometry of a home by tracing over building floor plans. The software integrates the AccuRate calculation engine to generate the home rating and can be used to rate an existing design or as an interactive tool to optimise it for or beyond compliance.

FirstRate5® is one of four software packages in Australia administered by the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme and accredited under the NatHERS protocol for National regulatory compliance. The software tool generates ratings based on the NatHERS 0-10 star scale for homes.

Under current regulatory requirements, homes are required to have a minimum of 6 out of 10 stars.

The rating is independent of the size and type of housing. This means that all new housing has the potential to achieve a good energy efficiency rating.

Accredited Thermal Performance Assessors have achieved competence with the FirstRate5® software and fulfilled the other requirements of accreditation. See Accrediting Organisations for Thermal Performance Assessors in Victoria (below).