Air-to-water heat pump without buffer storage | Heating installer refers to building energy law requirement

Hello together,

I am now giving you an update or a brief description in case any of you are also considering applying for exemption from the ERR.

Also, the title of the thread doesn’t quite fit. Since 2020, the Energy Saving Ordinance no longer exists, but since 2020 the regulation according to the Building Energy Act applies. This means that this new legislation also applies to our construction project... and this law has further tightened the issue regarding ERR exemption. This means that an application for exemption involves "additional effort"!

A brief chronology of how it went for us:

- I commissioned the well-known engineering firm "H******n" for the room heat load calculation (including template letter). About 4 weeks passed for the complete documentation. They are currently very busy, so longer waiting times have to be expected.

- When we received the documents from the engineering firm, we informed the responsible district office about the matter and submitted an application for ERR exemption. I must mention that the authority initially did not know what to make of it, and we were very likely the first to submit such an application.

- After about 10 days (upon our inquiry), we were informed that the matter is now known within the authority and that they now know how to handle it. In this context, we also immediately received a file number, so the application is now officially "activated."

- Then the heating load calculation including template letter was sent to the district office. Receipt of these documents was confirmed... and then nothing happened for some time. Upon inquiry about the current processing status, we received the following information:

"You have applied for exemption from the room-by-room regulation of room temperature, regulated in § 63 paragraph 1 of the Building Energy Act; the legal basis for the exemption is § 102 paragraph 1 of the Building Energy Act. The authority responsible for the enforcement of the Building Energy Act is the district office XXX as the lower building supervisory authority (§ 2 paragraph 1 sentence 1 AVEn). § 7 paragraph 1 sentence 1 AVEn stipulates that the presence of the requirements for an exemption under § 102 paragraph 1 sentence 1 no. 1 or no. 2 alternative 1 AVEn must be certified by an expert according to § 3 paragraph 1 AVEn."

Specifically, the following is now required: Possibly, the heating load calculation from the engineering firm H******n, signed by Mr. XXX, can already be regarded as such a certificate. However, the prerequisite is that Mr. XXX provides the district office XXX with corresponding proof. If Mr. XXX is not an expert in the sense of § 3 paragraph 1 AVEn, you must still provide us with a corresponding certificate from an expert including their proof.

- After inquiring at the engineering firm whether the calculation can be signed as requested by the district office, this was unfortunately denied. (Probably because the required qualification as an expert according to § 3 paragraph 1 AVEn is possibly not present in the company?)

- Subsequently, we first started looking for an “expert according to § 3 paragraph 1 AVEn.” This is an adventure, I can tell you. Especially since most “experts” don’t even know what you want from them when you present the matter. "...so much for the topic 'experts'.... We had to make several attempts until we found someone who immediately knew the matter and issued this still necessary certificate.

- Afterwards, the still due confirmation was subsequently submitted to the district office. Within 3 days we received the official ERR exemption (with stamp and all that fuss) by post.

Conclusion: It is all doable, but you definitely need a lot of persistence and time. If you are already under time pressure, it makes little sense! So deal with the topic early!

My personal opinion: --- Bureaucracy at its highest level! --- An independent expert must first issue a certificate created by a specialist in this field! So, the specialist is not trusted at first.... Somehow reminds me of "Asterix Conquers Rome" and the task with the "Passierschein A38."

Not to forget that the whole thing also has a "monetary" cost besides time! It ultimately cost us about €950.

Good luck to all future builders who are considering applying for exemption from the ERR.

Conclusion:
Everything is doable, but you definitely need a lot of endurance and time.
If you are already under time pressure, it makes little sense! So deal with the topic early!

Congratulations that it worked out for you too.

However, not every office is as bureaucratic as yours. Be that as it may, the 950€ is money well spent and you are formally clean :D

But for 950 EUR he could have simply had ERRs installed and not used them? Wasn't that more of a Pyrrhic victory?

Congratulations that it worked out for you too.

However, not every office is as bureaucratic as yours. Be that as it may, the 950€ is well invested money and you are formally clean :D

Thanks :cool: ...however, I doubt that the offices here could act "bureaucratically" differently.
After all, it is now prescribed by law since the Building Energy Act, so an office cannot just disregard that, can it?
The offices also have to work in compliance with the law and audit-proof, right?

...anyway, we are glad to have the exemption in hand. :p

But for 950 EUR he could have simply had ERRs installed and just not used them? Wasn't that rather a Pyrrhic victory?

It's not just the thermostats... there are the actuators, the buffer tank, and other labor materials added. Overall, it is worth it since the heating load calculation is designed for the house, and no "run-of-the-mill installation" is done. We're not talking it down... it's fine as it is... :cool:

You can also leave out the buffer like that, the office has no passion for it anyway. They only care about the ERR.