PEB CERTIFICATE AND PEB FOR PERMIT

When we prepare a permit for renovation, we explain to our clients that they need of PEB responsible to introduce the new permit. A lot of time they answer us that they have already a PEB certification. For this reason we think it is interesting to explain the difference between the “PEB certificate” and the PEB that needs for a permit.

The first one is for existing houses that you want to rent or to sell. PEB certificate is provided by a “certificateur PEB ” and it is energy performance photo of your building. It will be created using the official software provided by BRUXEELLES ENVIRONNEMENT in which, giving all required information, the building will be classified with a letter (standard to evaluate the energy performance). It is important to understand that the degree of accuracy varies. In fact, the software asks you to enter some data such as the composition of the walls (not always visible to the operator). In any case, the given vision of the building is quite real.

The responsible PEB, is an expert of energy building performance and his intervention is mandatory for new permits for the energy performance for the new part of the building: insulation about new walls and new roof, energy performance for new windows and details for ventilation (air extraction, etc...). The final goal is to calculate heat transfer capacity (transmittance) for each element like walls, roof, floor and air transfer capacity for each new room (extraction for “wet rooms” as kitchen, bathroom, etc… and air intake for dry rooms as bedrooms, living rooms, etc...). All the parameters have to respect the standards imposed by Belgian law.

Ventilation (air extraction and air intake) is a topic that needs to be careful for some details: for example for air extraction in the bathroom you cannot use a system with a switch but it needs to install a system in continuous operation. For the air intake you need to install ventilation grilles in the wall or some integrated systems for windows if you replace them (some air intake systems for windows are totally invisibles).

The PEB manager will give to the architect and to the owner all kind of information about the standards to respect and all information have to be added to project. All calculation will be done by the manager using the official software provided by “BRUXELLES ENVIRONNEMENT”.

There are two last important topics for PEB: the first one is difference for PEB application depending on the region where the property is located. One of the most important difference between Brussels capital region and Flemish region is that in Brussels the process is from the beginning until the end of the permit (PEB manager has to provide different documents in different moments) while in the Flemish region, PEB manager intervenes only at the end of the renovation. The second one is that you can refuse to respect the standards imposed by the Belgian law but you will pay fines. In fact, at the end of the process, the PEB Manager will provide the final dossier about all intervention in your building to the public administration with all information about insulation materials, ventilation systems, etc…

There some intervention that don’t require a permit but the PEB is mandatory. For example if we want to replace the windows without changing the form or the size. In this case the PEB will be provided by the owner.

We always suggest to ask several information to the public administration or to “Bruxelles environnement” before to begin a renovation.