The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: Model building procedure for new residential buildings

Accompanying expert opinion on the introduction of the simplified verification procedure according to the Building Energy Act (GEG)

Project briefing

  • Status Completed
  • Project duration February 2018 – March 2020
  • Programme Future Building

With the model building procedure, the GEG provides for a simplified verification procedure for certain residential buildings. The expert opinion defines the requirements under material law as well as the necessary characteristic values for the issuing of energy performance certificates.

Background

The former version of the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) provided a simplified procedure for calculating the energy efficiency of newly constructed residential buildings without air conditioning in Section 3 para. 5 EnEV. This procedure was introduced in October 2016 as part of a joint announcement by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). The announcement describes various technical configurations which generally meet the requirements of Section 3 para. 1, 2 and 4 EnEV under the conditions of application defined therein. With the application of the procedure from the announcement, compliance with § 3 paragraph 1, 2, and 4 EnEV was considered fulfilled without the need for detailed calculations according to § 3 paragraph 3 EnEV. In the course of merging the existing regulations in the Building Energy Act (GEG), it was necessary to investigate to what extent the existing model building procedure could be continued with the GEG.

Objective

The model building procedure is intended to allow three types of newly constructed residential buildings (freestanding, single-sided and double-sided ) with a gross floor area of 115 to 2,300 m2 to use the model building procedure according to Section 31 GEG. There are to be a choice of 10 different equipment variants, to which are assigned corresponding thermal insulation variants (four levels) depending on the size and type of building.

The report was intended to develop all the necessary bases for the introduction of the model building procedure within the framework of the GEG. The project was divided into three different lots that built on each other. The first two lots serve to prepare and develop the simplified verification procedure. Here, the model buildings on which the procedure is based, whose data basis was not available in detail, are characterised (lot 1 of the research project). Subsequently, the substantive legal requirements are determined by determining the combination of plant variant and required thermal insulation for the model buildings (lot 2 of the research project). The results from the first two lots were the basis for the preparation of the draft of the GEG of 28.05.2019. Taking into account the constraints of the cabinet version of the GEG of 23.10.2019, the energy characteristics are then calculated according to DIN V 18599:2018 (lot 3 of the research project). These are the basis for the information in energy performance certificates, which are to be issued for residential buildings to be constructed according to the simplified procedure (model building procedure of the GEG). The energy characteristics were published with the "Announcement on the information in energy requirement certificates according to the Building Energy Act when applying the simplified verification procedure for residential buildings to be constructed" of 8 December 2020.

The contractor of the research project was University of Stuttgart, Institute for Building Energetics, Thermotechnology and Energy Storage (IGTE).

Contact us

  • Melanie Bart
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division WB 2 "Instrumente zur Emissionsminderung im Gebäudebereich"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-2723
    Email: melanie.bart@bbr.bund.de

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