Energy Conservation Ordinance – What do I need to pay attention to when building or renovating a home??

The Energy Saving Ordinance specifies how properties are to be built or retrofitted to be as energy-efficient as possible. To find out which 2020 regulations to be aware of, read this article.

• What is the Energy Saving Ordinance?
• What are the minimum requirements for new construction and renovation??
• What obligations new homeowners have when buying a house?
• Am I obliged to have an energy certificate??
• What are low-energy houses and KfW efficiency houses?
• KfW Efficiency House Standards
• Are there subsidies and grants for the implementation of the EnEv??
• KfW Funding Finder
• Energy Saving Ordinance – Everything at a glance

What exactly is the Energy Saving Ordinance??

With the Energy Saving Ordinance, or EnEV for short, the German government has set standards for energy saving, as the aim is to have a virtually climate-neutral building stock in Germany by 2050. This means that the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) should either be compensated or, in the best case, completely avoided. In addition to the Renewable Energy Sources Act, or EEG for short, the Energy Saving Ordinance is expected to play a major role in achieving this goal.

The Energy Saving Ordinance regulates which requirements must be met for the new construction or renovation of existing buildings in the areas of heating and air conditioning technology and thermal insulation. Although each property owner or builder is responsible for implementing these requirements, inspections should always be expected. The relevant authorities in the federal states regularly carry out random checks, which mainly target inspection reports on air conditioning systems as well as the energy performance certificate. If such an inspection actually reveals non-compliance with the EnEV requirements, the respective homeowner can be fined up to 50.000 Euro can be imposed.

Three become one: The new Building Energy Act (GEG) replaces the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) and combines its contents with the Energy Saving Act (EnEG) and the Renewable Energies Heat Act (EEWarmeG). The JCT has been in effect since November 2020.

What are the minimum requirements of the Energy Saving Ordinance for new buildings or renovations??

Particularly in the case of new buildings, the EnEV aims to reduce the amount of energy required for heating water and for heating and therefore specifies certain guideline values. Also, the residential buildings must be designed and insulated so that the heat loss is also below a specified limit value. The exact amount of these limits and guidelines can be found in the tables of the EnEV and can be viewed by builders on the website of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

In the context of the energy turnaround, this means generally ensuring a decrease in energy consumption in the building sector. In principle, it does not matter whether the planned new building is residential or non-residential, because special limit values for transmission heat loss and annual primary energy demand apply to both. However, the main difference between the two types of building is that while the energy requirements for hot water, cooling and heating are included in the overall assessment for residential buildings, the requirements of the installed lighting are also taken into account for non-residential buildings.

If your planned new building has a living area of more than 50 square meters, you as the builder are obliged to cover part of the energy demand with renewable energies. The basis for this is the Renewable Energies Heat Act (EEWarmeG). However, it also allows certain replacement measures if you are at least 15 percent above the requirements of the EnEV in terms of energy efficiency, which is quite possible through increased insulation. In this case, you do not have to use renewable energy sources, such as solar panels on the roof.

What obligations do new homeowners have when buying a house??

You do not want to build a new building, but are interested in buying an existing property? In this case, the EnEV obliges you to renovate or retrofit the building to improve its energy efficiency. This concerns above all:

• Insulation of the top floor ceiling or the roof: The latter applies if your desired property is an old building. The aim is to ensure that the heat transfer coefficient, also known as the U-value, does not exceed 0.24 watts per square meter and degree Kelvin after insulation. However, if the top floor ceiling or the roof already meet the requirements for minimum thermal insulation, no subsequent energy renovation is mandatory. Provided they meet the requirements, this also applies to older buildings with wooden beams or solid ceilings.
• Insulation of exterior walls: Although there is no general obligation to do so, it should be considered for reasons of climate and environmental protection alone. If you are having at least 10 percent of the facade area renovated or refurbished, you must, however, comply with the requirements of the EnEV.
• Renovation of heating systems and heating pipes: Since 2009, heating systems in detached and semi-detached houses built before 1978 must be replaced and renewed. This includes insulation of heating and hot water pipes in unheated rooms. In general, and completely independent of an energy-related renovation obligation, building owners and potential property owners should nowadays pay more attention to ensuring that their building is ventilated, heated and air-conditioned in an energy-efficient manner. This not only saves energy costs, but also protects the environment. And as a health bonus, you also benefit from a better indoor climate.

Am I obliged to have an energy certificate??

As a house owner, you are obliged to have an energy certificate for your property and, in the event of a sale, to issue one to the new owner.

What is the energy certificate?

• Address
• Building type
• Year of construction
• Usable area
• Heating technology
• Number of apartments

However, the second page of the energy certificate is only used for demand certificates, in which both final energy demand and primary energy demand are listed. The third page is filled in exclusively for consumption certificates that contain an energy consumption value. The building energy value, which is stated in every energy certificate, allows buildings to be compared in terms of their energy efficiency.

What is the purpose of the energy certificate?

Since in residential buildings, the final energy demand mainly includes the energy needed for heating and hot water production, the building data and structural conditions (exterior walls, roof) are analyzed to determine it. However, the usage behavior of the house occupants is not taken into account, as this varies from individual to individual. In this way, a user-independent building assessment can be prepared, which serves as an orientation for potential buyers and/or tenants about future energy consumption and the associated costs. In addition, the energy certificate also contains modernization recommendations based on the technical analysis of the building. According to EnEV, every seller is obliged to present an energy certificate for the property. As a rule, this is done during the inspection, immediately afterwards or at the latest upon request of the buyer. Issuers of an energy certificate are also obliged to keep copies of the documents they issue for two years and to send them to the relevant inspection authority on request.

What are low-energy houses and KfW efficiency houses??

Low-energy houses are properties that were built according to the specifications of the EnEV as well as KfW efficiency houses. The KfW (Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau) can not only support you with a planned construction financing, but also financially promotes construction projects that meet certain energy standards. The international standard for a low-energy house is a maximum heating requirement of 70 kilowatt hours per square meter per year.

This corresponds to an average consumption of about seven liters of heating oil per square meter and year. Since the Energy Saving Ordinance of 2009, every new building must comply with this standard, so every new building since 2009 may also call itself a low-energy house. If it has been renovated accordingly, an old building can of course also meet this standard. The primary goal is always optimal thermal insulation, as less heat loss simply means lower heating costs. And this should please not only your finances, but also your environment.

Even though there are various designations or standards for low-energy houses throughout Germany, which are subject to different rules on top of that, are inspected by different authorities and in some cases are also subsidized by the state, the most common low-energy house concepts now follow here:

1. The EnEV house: An EnEV house is any property whose primary energy requirement meets the requirements of the Energy Saving Ordinance of 2009 and satisfies. In some cases, there are regional regulations for low-energy houses, such as the "Schleswig-Holstein low-energy house standard". This specifies that the annual primary energy requirement must be 20 percent below the maximum value specified in the EnEV. The transmission value must also be at least 30 percent lower in Schleswig-Holstein.
2. The KfW Efficiency House: A KfW Efficiency House 100 corresponds exactly to the specifications of the Energy Saving Ordinance and is thus considered a reference house. KfW efficiency houses are characterized by exemplary thermal insulation on the inside, as the walls as well as the floor slab and roof are sealed to the outside. The heat for hot water and heating usually comes in whole or in part from renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics, and air circulation is controlled by a central ventilation system.

standards of the KfW efficiency houses

All KfW efficiency houses are subject to certain standards, which are based on the following two criteria:

1. Total energy requirement of the property / primary energy requirement
2. Thermal insulation of the property / transmission heat loss

The primary energy requirement indicates how much energy is consumed on average for heating water, ventilation and heating. It takes into account not only the energy required in the house, but also the entire energy expenditure. This also includes upstream processes such as the delivery of electricity, gas or district heating.

Transmission heat loss is a term used to make clear how much heat energy is lost through the building envelope over time in a heated property. Lowest heat losses are achieved through good thermal insulation and modern thermal insulation windows.

Standard KfW 40, KfW 40 plus and KfW 55

The different standards of the KfW efficiency houses are precisely defined by the values 40, 40 plus and 55. Basically, you can say: The lower the value, the lower the energy requirement of the property – and the higher the subsidy you can receive from KfW. A KfW Efficiency House 100, which complies with the requirements of the Energy Saving Ordinance, is considered the reference standard.

To explain this in more detail, here is a small example: The KfW Efficiency House 55 consumes only 55 percent of the primary energy compared to the EnEV reference building just mentioned. In addition, the transmission heat loss is only 70 percent, which improves the building's thermal insulation by 30 percent.

Since the statutory standard for new buildings is 75 percent of the level of the reference building, you will receive the entry-level subsidy for a KfW Efficiency House 55 if you build your new property 25 percent better and more energy-efficient than the minimum requirements of the EnEV.

If you want to apply for KfW subsidies for your building project, you should always bring an energy consultant on board. This is for the planning and implementation of your project not only a great help and important support, but can you through its construction support even a KfW extra grant of 4.000 euros.

Implementation of the KfW Efficiency House standards in house construction

A KfW Efficiency House standard results from the combination of various structural and technical measures. This applies above all to the areas of insulation, ventilation and heating. The thermal insulation, for example, should be evenly distributed over the entire building envelope.

In addition, renewable energies must be used in the systems engineering. This can be done, for example, with the use of solar energy for water heating and heating support, via environmental heat by using heat pumps or by installing a ventilation system for heat recovery.

Of course, not every house is the same, but is as individual as its owners and occupants. The same measures often have different effects on different buildings, resulting in different efficiency house standards. An overall energy concept, in which the building is not considered in individual parts but as a whole, is therefore enormously important.

There are subsidies and grants for the implementation of the EnEv?

There are subsidies for the implementation of the energy saving ordinance. With extensive subsidies, for example, the federal development bank KfW finances the purchase and construction of energy-efficient buildings, energy-efficient renovations or conversions, and the use of renewable energies.

Depending on the subsidy program, this financial support can take the form of a grant or a low-interest loan. Please note, however, that the subsidies are always linked to conditions that usually exceed the statutory minimum standard. When it comes to insulation, for example, the KfW standards apply, which are much more demanding than the Energy Saving Ordinance stipulates.

Nevertheless, a KfW subsidy is usually already worthwhile, since the development bank offers terms and annual interest rates that are not possible for other banks.