Recommended insulation thickness for new buildings according to the Building Energy Act 2024 – looking for experiences and tips

Hello everyone,

I am currently at the very beginning of planning my single-family house and am dealing with the requirements of the [Gebäudeenergiegesetz (Gebäudeenergiegesetz)] 2024. In doing so, I came across the question of how to determine how thick the thermal insulation of my new building actually needs to be. So far, I have not found a concrete table that provides clear specifications or recommendations for the insulation thickness. Are there official sources I can refer to for my initial planning?

I would also be interested to know how you handled the sound and thermal insulation verification during the building permit application. Is it mandatory to hire a building physicist for these verifications, or are there architects who offer this service directly? If so, should one specifically look for architects who can take over the thermal and sound insulation verification?

Thanks for your experiences!

I am currently at the very beginning of planning my single-family house and am dealing with the requirements from the Building Energy Act (Gebäudeenergiegesetz) 2024. In doing so, I came across the question of how to determine how thick the thermal insulation of my new building actually needs to be. So far, I have not found a concrete table that provides clear specifications or recommendations on the insulation thickness. Are there official information sources that one can refer to for their own preliminary planning?

You will probably only like the first part of my answer: there are U-value calculators for this (e.g., Ubakus).

However, you should preferably go to an independent architect, whom you do not "infect" with any drawing-based self-planning, but instead bring only a room program and a list of musts, (donts), and niceties. Including the quotation marks, you can google or by now also find via my signature my "House Construction Roadmap, also for you: the HOAI phase model!" and at the same location my 11ant Steinemantra. A building according to the Building Energy Act is also quite possible monolithic without ETICS, and the timber frame panel builders have standard recipes for their ETICS wall assemblies for all efficiency house rating levels.

For your question, I find the book "Richtig dämmen" by Stiftung Warentest recommendable. It also contains a material overview including necessary insulation thicknesses for 0.24 U-value as well as a formula for conversion to other U-values. I also find it interesting regarding the explanations of environmental properties, advantages and disadvantages of each insulation material.

Otherwise, consider what 11ant says, Ubakus, and discuss with your architects to explore the best option.