EPBD 2026: BER production

SEAI have released a new version of SBEMie engine (5.7.a) to meet the 2024 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU/2024/1275, EPBD) which comes into force on 29/05/2026.

Please use the hyperlinks in this article to find documentation and software.

Whilst SEAI are providing the necessary specifications and organising a validation scheme they have provided an interim solution to enable you to provide BER Certificates with DesignBuilder v6.1.9.

The documentation for this solution is provided on the SEAI webpage. The solution requires you to install two additional pieces of software:

1. InpBridge which modifies the SBEMie input file created with DesignBuilder v6.1.9
2. SBEMie interface iSBEMiev5.7.a

Note that you do not need to know how to use iSBEMie. It is provided so that the SBEM v5.7.a engine (used by all SBEM interfaces) can be accessed and the easiest way to do this is to install iSBEMie.

Customers are advised to follow the following steps to run SBEMie calculations in compliance with v5.7a. Note that generic instructions are available on the SEAI webpage, including a guide for InpBridge. which provide full details and you should read those too. 

1. Download and install InpBridge
2. Download and install iSBEMiev5.7.a (you may need to add this to your Trusted software)
3. Complete data entry and BER calculation in DesignBuilder v6.1.9. Even if you have already done this you should rerun the calculation to ensure the correct project files are stored in your sbem folder. DesignBuilder uses the same file names for each calculation so stores only files from the most recent calculation.
4. You can now open InpBridge and enter the required data:

• The folder used by DesignBuilder for your SBEMie v5.6.a files. You can find this through the DesignBuilder interface

• It will generally be of this format: C:/Users/janedoe/AppData/Local/DesignBuilder/56a.
• Note that InpBridge has a Browse function to access Windows File Explorer and navigate to the folder
• In DesignBuilder, the SBEM input file always has the name model.inp

• The iSBEMv5.7.a folder. If you choose the default when installing, this will be C:/NEAP/iSBEMie_v5.7.a_x64

    5. Edit the EPBD parameters if needed (for more information, check Section 4.3 of the InpBridge-User-Guide)

    6. DesignBuilder v6.1.9 is an approved SBEMie v5.6.a interface:

    7. You can now run the analysis with the new inputs

    8. The calculation is executed

    9. The XML can be found in the same folder as your input file:

10. Copy this to your project folder for safe keeping!