#VLOL2532389AFrance updates building energy calculation rules for non-residential uses
AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.
This order updates the technical rules used to calculate energy and performance requirements for buildings in France, especially for offices, schools, hotels, shops, sports facilities, restaurants, healthcare sites and mixed-use buildings. It revises many usage categories, default values and calculation tables, and adds clearer rules for assigning construction impacts in mixed-use projects. For developers, engineers and compliance teams, the practical effect is that building models and regulatory calculations will need to use the new tables and definitions from 1 May 2026. Projects that rely on the Th-Bat 2020 and related methods should check their software, assumptions and documentation before submitting or updating calculations.
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Key Changes
- Updates many building-use categories and default values used in energy and ventilation calculations.
- Adds specific rules for mixed-use buildings, including how to assign construction impacts to each programmatic area.
- Revises lighting, hot water, air permeability, parking, and occupant movement tables, with new values for sectors like hotels, restaurants, healthcare and sports facilities.
Obligations
What this law requires
For regulatory calculations under the cited building-energy methods, projects must use the updated usage categories, default values, and calculation tables introduced by this amendment, including the revised tables for water consumption, air permeability, zone usage lists, traversing-group coefficients, and passive-mechanical shading ratios.
When calculating mixed-use building impacts, elements of the chantier must be assigned to the relevant programmatic entity using an allocation coefficient Fp,j; if an element serves only one entity, it must be fully allocated to that entity, and if not, its impact must be allocated pro rata to the reference floor area.
For building types other than dwellings, offices, and primary/secondary education, the scope of the relevant article has been expanded, so calculations must be performed using the broader 'other than dwelling' category rather than the former limited category.
For buildings used as commerce, airport terminals, or industrial/artisanal premises, the air-tightness default of 3 m³/(h·m²) of heat-loss envelope applies, but not to high-rise buildings or buildings with reference floor area above 3,000 m².
For water-consumption calculations, projects must use the updated per-usage reference values, including the newly listed or reclassified usage types such as libraries, atypical educational buildings, university teaching and research buildings, hotels split into day/night, restaurants, canteens, healthcare facilities, sports facilities, and mixed-use categories.