The updated state building regulations for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, BauO NRW, were published at the end of 2017. The state government’s aim for the new building regulations is to align them more closely with the model building regulations in Germany, MBO.
How does NRW implement the model building regulations?
What does the NRW state building code regulate?
Of particular interest are the regulations for the use of building products, which are anchored in Section 2 of the BauO NRW. These regulations clarify whether the line taken by the Conference of Building Ministers to maintain the hurdles criticized by the EU for the sale of construction products that are not fully covered by the CE mark, which also includes domestic ventilation units, will be followed for the time being.
As discussed in the section on the model building regulations and the model administrative regulation on technical building regulations, domestic ventilation units fall into the category of construction products that are not yet fully harmonized throughout the EU, meaning that the features of this equipment technology that need to be checked are not fully covered by the CE mark.
Missing essential characteristics are according to the model administrative regulation:
– Fire behavior
– Characteristic curve, minimum volume flow, tightness, air quality (filter), safety devices
– Energy parameters.
The content of the relevant sections §§ 17-25 of the NRW State Building Code corresponds to the model administrative regulation, with the exception of § 23, sentence 2 with the regulation for approvals for building products for use in listed buildings. The government in NRW is apparently trying to reduce the state’s own bureaucracy and hurdles for manufacturers, planners and tradespeople.
Approval procedure for domestic ventilation units still mandatory
In accordance with the MBO and the MVV TB, the BauO NRW requires that construction products with essential characteristics not covered by the CE mark may only be used if there is a certificate of usability for them. Proofs of usability include general building authority approvals (Section 21), which are issued by the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt), or general building authority test certificates (Section 22), such as those issued by the TZWL for domestic ventilation units in the DIBt approval procedure.
In the understanding of the TZWL, this means that the DIBt approval procedure must continue to be carried out for the usability of domestic ventilation units in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and that manufacturer-independent tests by DIBt-recognized testing bodies are therefore mandatory.