I see being able to turn the knobs myself when it comes to the energy performance of a home as an added value for me as a designer in the design process, but certainly also for my clients in the awareness of design and material choices to be made.

Therefore, I used to make my own EPG calculations as much as possible for my design projects. Now that BENG is the new standard as of January 1, it was time for a refresher course from BuildingLabel: ‘Energy Performance Calculations for Designers.’ Fully in keeping with the zeitgeist, this took place entirely online and I sat in the virtual classroom along with 15 more participants.

But you can take in so much theoretical knowledge, it’s all about application (and practice) in practice. That is why I consider myself lucky that I have just completed the VO for a detached house. I immediately entered it into the UNIEC3 software. That was not easy in terms of the amount of information to enter, but was not too bad in terms of the outcome of the BENG scores. Design intuition and experience once again proved their worth.

By turning the knobs, I can again immediately see the contribution of design and material choices and can again advise my clients substantively even with BENG.