Energy consulting in Berlin: secure funding with a dena-listed expert

The price depends on three things: the size of the building, the state of the documentation and the scope of the service. An initial phone consultation is free with us; it clarifies which service your project actually needs. A subsidised on-site consultation for a single-family house in Berlin typically costs between 800 and 1,500 euros, and between 1,500 and 2,500 euros for a Gründerzeit apartment building. The effort rises above all where building plans are missing and components have to be measured on site.

Energy consulting for residential buildings falls under BAFA, not KfW. BAFA covers half of the eligible consulting costs, though the grant is capped, and the level of that cap depends on the building type. We calculate what remains in your case before you place the order, not afterwards. The sequence matters: the application has to be submitted and approved before the consultation starts. Anyone who commissions first and applies later loses the grant.

The appointment takes two to four hours for a single-family house, longer for an apartment building. We record component build-ups, windows, roof and basement ceiling, plus the heating system with its year of construction, output and flow temperature. We walk through every floor including basement and attic, because the largest heat losses rarely show up where you would expect them. It usually takes two to three weeks until the written report is ready.

Heating bills from the last three years, floor area figures, documentation on the heating system and evidence of earlier renovation work such as new windows or an insulated basement ceiling are all helpful. If those documents are missing, it is not an obstacle, it simply lengthens the measuring part. In Berlin conservation areas and for listed buildings we additionally check which measures are permissible on the facade at all, before they end up in the recommendation.

The two are not the same, and the more expensive service is not automatically the right one. If you want to carry out a single measure in the short term, usually replacing the heating system, a targeted on-site consultation with a heat load calculation is enough in many cases. It answers the question of whether your existing radiators can carry a heat pump, and provides the basis for the hydraulic balancing.

If, on the other hand, you are planning several steps over several years, for example heating, windows and roof, then you need a sequence. That is exactly what the individual renovation roadmap delivers, and it additionally brings a funding bonus on every single measure implemented from it. We will tell you which route is right for your building in the free initial conversation, before you award the larger contract.

Which type of certificate applies depends on the year of construction and the size of the building. If your building has fewer than five residential units, the building application dates from before 1 November 1977 and no energy-related renovation has taken place since, the demand-based certificate is mandatory. From five residential units upwards the consumption-based certificate is usually permitted as well; it is then based on the bills of the last three years. A new building always requires the demand-based certificate.

For renovation planning we recommend the demand-based certificate even where the consumption-based one would suffice: consumption reflects user behaviour, demand reflects the building fabric. A certificate is valid for ten years and always covers the entire building, not the individual apartment. In a homeowners' association the commission therefore runs through the property management. If we are on site for the consultation anyway, we record the data for the certificate in the same appointment.