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EPB requirements
All buildings in Flanders for which planning permission is applied for or a notification is made are subject to certain energy performance standards. Those standards are called EPB requirements. EPB stands for ‘Energieprestatie en Binnenklimaat’ (energy performance and indoor climate).
Conditions
When do the EPB rules apply?
The energy performance legislation applies to all works to buildings:
- which are part of a licensed whole for which permission was applied for or a notification was made from 1 January 2006 and for which the participation of an architect is required
- and which are heated or cooled. In this context, any building (excluding industry and agriculture) in which people live, work, stay, exercise, are cared for, shop or spend their leisure time is always considered to be heated or cooled even if this is not necessarily the case.
Which EPB requirements must the construction project meet?
The EPB requirements are not the same for all buildings. Which EPB requirements apply to a construction project depends on the:
- purpose of the building (different requirements apply to houses than to offices, schools, hospitality businesses, shops, hospitals, industrial buildings, farms, etc.). For more info, please refer to ‘Bestemmingen’ (Purposes) (on EPB-pedia)
- nature of the works (different requirements apply to new constructions than to renovations or deep energy renovations, for example). For more information, please refer to ‘Aard van de werken’ (Nature of the works) (on EPB-pedia)
- year of the planning permission application. The year in which you applied for planning permission determines the EPB requirements and not the year in which the permission was granted. You can find the application date on the acknowledgement of receipt from the municipality or on the postal receipt in case of registered post.
On EPB-pedia you can find the
- EPB requirements for building applications/notifications from 2025 onwards
- EPB requirements for building applications/notifications in 2023 and 2024
- EPB requirements for building applications/notifications in 2022
- EPB requirements for building applications/notifications in 2021
If your building application/notification dates from before 2021, please refer to the overviews of EPB requirements by year since 2006.
Check the EPB-pedia (in Dutch).