The energy pass will become mandatory in Germany as of the second half of 2008

In Germany, the EU directive will be implemented by an amendment of the Energy Savings Act and the Energy Savings Ordinance. The latter came into effect on 01 October 2007 and states that the energy pass will be mandatory as of the middle of 2008.  Comprehensible information about energy consumption and the energy status of the respective building are supposed to increase market transparency for tenants and buyers. The energy passes merely serve for information and do not constitute any legal grounds. Refurbishment recommendations will also be included in each energy pass. These are supposed to be an incentive for modernisation and energy savings measures.

In Germany, legislation has approved two variants of the energy pass: the so-called demand-oriented and the consumption-oriented energy pass. For the demand-oriented energy pass, building envelopes, construction materials and the heating system are analysed. Afterwards the total heat loss of the building is determined based on this data. The result is an objective picture of a building's energy quality, independent of the behaviour of individual consumers. The consumption-oriented energy pass on the other hand states the actual energy consumption per square meter. For this type of energy pass, the corresponding data is determined on the basis of the heating cost bills of the last three years. The measured consumption depends on the behaviour of the tenants.

Both variants of the energy pass are available at ista Deutschland: The Essen company is responsible for the preparation of the consumption-oriented passes, while our cooperation partner Cycle Systems, already the market leader for the issue of energy passes in the Netherlands, is in charge of demand-oriented energy passes.