ᐅ Exemption from the Building Energy Act

Good morning,
we have a house from 1971 with ETICS (external thermal insulation composite system) – 5 cm (2 inches) insulation.
Our roof is a flat roof, which was renovated this year.
We would also like to renovate our facade at some point. I have read that doing so would require us to upgrade the insulation according to the Building Energy Act.
This would obviously mean considerable additional work, for example because the parapet, etc., would need to be renewed – it was installed on top of the 5 cm (2 inches) insulation.

Now, there is apparently the possibility to be exempted due to economic infeasibility in order to only renew the plaster, for example.
What are the chances of this? What is the best way to approach it?

It cannot be that you can renew the plaster for maybe around 10,000 euros but are then required by the Building Energy Act to insulate and pay three times as much including all related work – that cannot be financially reasonable! Are costs caused by additional work, such as renewing the parapet, included in the calculation of economic feasibility?

Best regards!

For exceptional cases, the federal states offer an application procedure according to §25 paragraph 1 of the Energy Saving Ordinance. In such cases, the decision depends on the discretion of the approving authorities.

hampshire schrieb:

For exceptional cases, the federal states offer an application procedure according to §25 paragraph 1 of the Energy Saving Ordinance. Then, it depends on the discretion of the approval authorities.

What are my chances in this case? And how does one proceed with this?

Was the flat roof the top floor ceiling, or do you still have an insulated interior ceiling? In the first case, you would have had to comply with the Energy Saving Ordinance last year. This could also have indicated that you might face a similar issue with the facade.

basti009 schrieb:

What are my chances in this case? And how do you approach something like this?

From my point of view, not very high if you cite the example above as uneconomical and also because of the aforementioned roof renovation point. The authors of the Building Energy Act are aware that such additional measures defined in the act will result in extra costs for homeowners for the insulation to be replaced. I would first check the U-value of the exterior facade and whether it would need to be newly insulated at all. The maximum value is 0.24 W/(m²K).

Request quotes, describe the case, submit the application.

Whether you qualify as a hardship case just because you obtained a new parapet flashing without considering the upcoming facade... well, good luck.

Keep the funding programs in mind. It might make sense to wait until after the next federal election. This hastily passed climate law will also trigger a flood of grants.

So the roof has been renovated with a U-value below 0.14, qualifying for subsidies.

The parapet itself is not directly attached to the facade; there is a sub-layer board underneath. Perhaps there is enough space there for the required insulation?

You can kind of see this in the picture.

Does a facade like this need to be replaced eventually? Or is it enough to just repaint it every few years?

We do have some small cracks, but these are not visible from a distance greater than 2 meters (6.6 feet) and are mainly limited to the window areas.