Two ministerial orders (arrêtés) of 17 August 2026, published in the Journal officiel of 23 August, will take effect on 1 September — in opposite directions. The first will reserve the “whole-home renovation” CEE grant (Certificats d’Économies d’Énergie — France’s energy saving certificates) for homes rated E, F or G and, in a house, for projects with no fossil-fuel equipment. The second will open four months of enhanced payments on low-carbon hot water.
You have until 31 August: operations committed up to and including that date will keep the old regime (Article 8(II)). After that, the grant closes to houses rated D and to those keeping a gas boiler.
568,600 kWh cumac, the scheme’s lifetime-savings unit — the whole-home grant for a four-grade jump or more. That scale is not changing; the conditions for reaching it are.
Two orders of 17 August 2026 pulling in opposite directions
Both texts amend the framework order of 29 December 2014 on standardised energy-saving operations. In it, a “fiche” coded BAR-TH-xxx sets a volume of certificates, in kWh cumac, that an installer sells to an energy supplier and passes back to you as a grant. The first order targets BAR-TH-174 and 175 (whole-home renovation), the second BAR-TH-101, 143, 148, 162 and 168 (hot water and solar).
Whole-home renovation: what closes on 1 September
An E, F or G rating becomes an entry condition
The order reserves sheets BAR-TH-174 (houses) and BAR-TH-175 (flats) for homes whose DPE class — Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique, the French EPC — will be E, F or G before the first stage of works (Article L. 173-1-1 of the Construction and Housing Code). A home rated D will move onto the “single-measure” sheets (fiches par geste).
In a single-family house, no fossil-fuel equipment left
This condition applies to BAR-TH-174 only: no equipment capable of burning a fossil fuel may remain, for heating or hot water. The test becomes binary — the 150 and 300 gCO₂eq/kWh (net calorific value) thresholds disappear here, while BAR-TH-175 keeps them. A hybrid heat pump backed by a gas boiler will not qualify. The one exception: connection to a district heating or cooling network.
⚠️ Warning: counter-intuitively, the main-residence condition disappears from the CEE side. It stays enforceable under MaPrimeRénov’ (occupied at least eight months a year), but BAR-TH-174 and 175 will no longer require it.
The ×2 top-up narrows to social and intermediate housing
Where the Anah (Agence nationale de l’habitat — the national housing agency) claims the certificates — the supported pathway, or parcours accompagné — the multiplier stays at ×4 for lower-income households on both sheets. Outside the Anah, under the “Coup de pouce” charter in Annex IV-9, it drops to ×2, on BAR-TH-174 alone and only for social or intermediate housing: a private-sector owner-occupier, even on a low income, will lose the ×2.
Two adjustments complete the text: the first stage is capped at a three-grade jump on BAR-TH-174, and the no-double-claiming test now runs from completion of the other operations, not their commitment.
| Grades jumped | Base volume, BAR-TH-174 and 175 |
|---|---|
| 2 | 360,200 kWh cumac |
| 3 | 447,900 kWh cumac |
| 4 or more | 568,600 kWh cumac |
Identical volumes on both sheets, no climate zoning, weighted by habitable floor area: 0.4 below 35 m², up to 1.3 above 130.
Hot water and solar: four months of enhanced payments
The second order creates an Article 3-9 enhancing operations committed between 1 September and 31 December 2026 inclusive, with no completion deadline.
| Sheet | Equipment | Lower-income | Others | Decarbonisation required on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAR-TH-148 | Storage heat-pump water heater | ×7 | ×4 | hot water only |
| BAR-TH-101 | Individual solar water heater (mainland) | ×5 | ×4 | hot water only |
| BAR-TH-162 | Photovoltaic-thermal collectors, water-circulating | ×5 | ×4 | the use covered |
| BAR-TH-168 | Solar thermal system (mainland) | ×5 | ×4 | heating and hot water, or hot water only |
| BAR-TH-143 | Combined solar system (mainland) | ×5 (up from ×2) | ×4 | heating and hot water |
The heat-pump water heater carries one flat volume, whatever the climate: 14,700 kWh cumac in a house, 11,800 in a flat. The solar sheets are zoned, in opposite directions: the solar water heater rises from 18,500 kWh cumac in H1 to 24,200 in H3, the combined solar system falls from 134,800 to 100,500. “Lower-income households” (ménages modestes) are defined by Article 3-1(II ter) of the order of 29 December 2014, not by an Anah bracket.
⚠️ The point that tips a file: for the heat-pump water heater, the test is not “is the home decarbonised” but “can the fossil-fuel equipment left in place produce hot water?”. A gas boiler that only heats leaves the enhancement intact; a combi boiler loses it and makes the home ineligible for the sheet.
Three conditions come with it: main-residence status for BAR-TH-143 alone; exclusion if a MaPrimeRénov’ application on the same item was filed before 1 September, unless refused; checks raised to 20% on site plus 30% by contact.
Price your works package under both regimes
The OneDpe renovation simulator starts from your DPE class, builds the packages that reach a two-grade gain or more, and calculates MaPrimeRénov’, the CEE grant and your out-of-pocket cost for each — E/F/G filter and decarbonisation included.
The scissors: MaPrimeRénov’ does not require decarbonisation
On the rating, the order simply aligns the CEE with MaPrimeRénov’, already reserved for classes E, F and G by Decree no. 2026-516 of 12 June 2026. On the energy source, it does not: the supported pathway requires a two-grade gain, not decarbonisation. A gas-heated house gaining two grades through insulation will stay fundable but lose the CEE grant — same scale, one funding source less. Costed your project with both aids added together? Redo the sums before you sign.
What to do before 31 August
What to do now: the operation must be committed by 31 August 2026 at the latest — commitment means acceptance of the quote — and appear on a list sent to the DGEC (Direction générale de l’énergie et du climat — the energy and climate directorate) before 18 September (Article 8(II)). Through the Anah the trigger differs: application filed before 1 September, list sent before 15 October (Article 8(III)). Get written confirmation that your project is on it: the quote date alone will not do.
Check the class on your DPE: it decides eligibility. And be wary of the sales approaches the deadline will bring — cold calling for energy renovation is banned, by phone and by email.
If your home is rated D, the decision shifts to single measures — see our five works with the best return on investment. To compare a quote committed this week with the same one committed on 1 September, use the OneDpe renovation works simulator.
