Why does a small protocol change affect your whole file?
The inspection protocol of the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) is the reference work on which every EPC certificate in Flanders is based: hundreds of pages of rules, definitions and calculation methods. Since 1 July 2025, Inspection Protocol 2025 (IP2025) applies, with the photo documentation requirements covered in a separate guide.
A protocol of that size doesn't change completely every year. It is rather continuously adjusted: a calculation method is refined, a procedure is clarified, a new data point becomes mandatory or is dropped. For you as an energy expert, the effect of such a small adjustment is not small: a file built according to the old rule can come back from VEKA for correction, with all the lost time that entails.
That's why it pays to follow changes structurally, instead of stumbling on them through a colleague, a training course, or an error message in the portal.
What exactly changes since 1 July 2026?
Based on reporting from Test-Aankoop and Solar & Storage Magazine, both referencing VEKA, two concrete adjustments have applied since 1 July 2026 to the EPC for homes, apartments and small non-residential units.
1. Estimated heating power on the EPC
The EPC now shows an estimate of the power (in kilowatts) needed to heat the home or building. That figure serves as a first reference point for an installer proposing a boiler or heat pump: an oversized installation costs unnecessary money and, especially for a heat pump, works less efficiently than an installation matched to the actual heat demand. The estimated power does not change the E-level, the label or the energy score and does not replace a professional heat loss calculation by the installer.
2. Reuse of data between energy experts
When an EPC was adjusted or renewed, the new energy expert used to have no choice but to retype all data, even if a colleague had fully measured the same home a year earlier. For EPCs officially submitted from 1 July 2026 onward, data can now be reused from a recent EPC. For certificates drawn up before 1 July 2026, this rule doesn't apply yet: the next expert still has to enter everything again.
For firms doing a lot of re-measurements (sale, rental, after renovation), this second point is the most noticeable: less duplicate work once the first generation of EPCs falls under the new rule.
What doesn't change?
It's just as important to know what doesn't change. Both adjustments from 1 July 2026 affect the presentation and reuse of data, not the core of the calculation:
- The E-level, the S-level and the label are still calculated using the same method as before.
- The photo documentation requirements from IP2025 (since 1 July 2025) are unchanged: the same 8 categories, the same minimum counts.
- The estimated power is an indication, not a mandatory calculation with its own burden of proof.
- Data reuse is not retroactive: an EPC from before 1 July 2026 doesn't qualify.
In other words: your on-site workflow (measuring, photographing, documenting installations) stays the same. What changes is how VEKA processes and displays the data, not what you have to do yourself in the field.
Where do you read about a protocol change first?
VEKA communicates changes via energiesparen.be and the EPC-pedia, the reference work for professionals that follows the structure of the inspection protocol (chapters I through XI) and is supplemented with examples and interpretations. The EPC-pedia keeps a section on what's new. Trade associations and training providers also often report changes in their own newsletters, and trade media and consumer organisations such as Test-Aankoop pick up the news once it becomes relevant to owners and buyers.
Usually the problem isn't that the information is missing. The problem is that it's scattered across multiple sources, and nobody automatically pings you the moment a change takes effect. Hence the value of a fixed routine, instead of hearing about it by chance.
How does EPC-Coach help with protocol changes?
A question energy experts often ask themselves in a borderline case: 'is this still according to the latest rule, or was that the previous version?' EPC-Coach is built to answer exactly that: you ask your question in plain language and get the answer with the exact passage from the protocol it's based on. That doesn't replace following VEKA communications yourself, but it is the difference between hesitating at the table and immediately having a backed-up answer, even on site, on your iPad.
No tool replaces your own judgment. EPC-Coach never gives advice outside the protocol and never clicks a button in VEKA itself: the expert remains the expert.
Does IP2025 simply remain in force?
With all the attention on what changes, it's worth stressing what doesn't change. IP2025, in force since 1 July 2025, remains the basis for every file: the same mandatory photo categories (facades, roof structure, installations, meters), the same requirement that missing access or invisible insulation leads to a default value, and the same responsibility for the expert to personally assess every file.
If your IP2025 workflow is already dialled in (see our photo checklist), you don't need to overhaul it for the 1 July 2026 changes. You're adding two new points of attention to an existing, working routine, instead of starting over.