The EU’s revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), adopted in 2024, sets a binding timeline for member states — and, by extension, for Hungarian property owners and operators. The goal is unambiguous: a net-zero building stock across the EU by 2050. The road there starts now, in 2026.
What does the directive actually require?
The parts of the EPBD that show up in practice:
- Renovation of the worst-performing buildings. Member states must draft national plans to progressively renovate buildings in the lowest energy classes — typically the bottom 15-16% of the stock.
- Zero emissions for new buildings. From 2028, every new public building, and from 2030 every new building, must be zero-emission.
- Smart Readiness Indicator. Buildings must demonstrate they can adapt to occupant needs and grid signals — in practice, this means real-time measurement and control infrastructure.
- Digital building logbook. A building’s energy and technical data must be kept in a documented, retrievable form.
What does this mean in practice?
For most owners, the directive does not demand demolition or an immediate, full-scale renovation tomorrow. What it genuinely requires is measurability: documented, auditable proof of a building’s current energy performance and of what any intervention actually changes.
A good energy certificate on paper is not a substitute for real-time data — and the next round of regulation makes that gap visible.
Many owners still base renovation decisions on a static, one-off certificate, while the Smart Readiness Indicator and the digital logbook both assume continuous, documented data is available. We wrote about why these two data sources often disagree in an earlier post.
What an owner should clarify now
- What energy class does the building fall into, and is it in scope for the national renovation plan?
- Is there continuous, documented measurement on the main systems (heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation)?
- Is a digital building logbook being kept, or only paper documentation?
- Would the planned renovation produce a measurable, verifiable result — or just improve the certificate’s letter grade?
Why deal with this now, rather than in 2029?
Funding for the renovation wave — both domestic and EU grants — tends to favour projects that can prove a measurable, documented result. A building that already has measurement running is in a stronger position when a grant application is reviewed, and can prove the actual savings after renovation — not just the calculated ones on paper.
This is the missing link BIS provides: real-time measurement and documented, auditable data, needed both to understand the current state and to prove future compliance.
If you’d like to find out where your building stands against the EPBD’s requirements, get in touch — we’ll walk through what the regulation specifically requires in your case.