The DPE (Diagnostic de Performance Énergétique) is the French Energy Performance Certificate, or EPC. You are selling, letting or buying a home in France, and you keep reading that an "A0 class" is coming to it on 1 January 2027. The reality is narrower. An order (arrêté) of 11 June 2026 does change the content of the certificate on that date. It adds an "A0" mention to some A or B labels. It requires on-site renewable output to be quantified. It also brings in the remaining lifespan of the heating system.
The order does not touch the seven classes, their thresholds or the certificate's validity. Nor does it change the timetable that bars the letting of thermal sieves (passoires thermiques). On the same date, 1 January 2027, another order (of 19 August 2026) lowers the electricity conversion factor in mainland France. That second topic has its own article.
On 1 January 2027, the French EPC gains an "A0" mention and six new items of information. No class threshold moves. Article 6 of the order of 11 June 2026 on the DPE: "The provisions of this order come into force on 1 January 2027" (our translation).
French EPC 2027: what the order of 11 June 2026 on the DPE changes
The order's French title is "Arrêté du 11 juin 2026 portant diverses dispositions d'adaptation au droit de l'Union européenne sur le diagnostic de performance énergétique". It implements Directive (EU) 2024/1275 on the energy performance of buildings. This directive, known as the EPBD, requires Member States to use a common certificate template.
The order does not create a new certificate. It amends the order of 31 March 2021 that sets the content of the residential DPE. That 2021 order only covers mainland France. The new features therefore do not apply in the French overseas territories.
Three dates are in circulation, and only one names the text. The order was signed on 11 June 2026. It was published in Journal officiel no. 0188 of 13 August 2026. It comes into force on 1 January 2027. The correct reference is therefore the order of 11 June 2026. Beware of the namesake: another order of the same day deals with MaPrimeRénov' (the French national energy renovation grant).
The order has no transitional provision. It does not revise certificates already issued. It adds neither the A0 mention nor the new sections to them. Your 2025 or 2026 certificate remains valid until its end date. Article D. 126-19 of the French Construction and Housing Code (CCH) sets that validity at ten years.
The order of 19 August 2026 provides for a new-label attestation at the new conversion factor. It "replaces the initial label of the energy performance certificate with a new label" (article 3, our translation). Neither text says that it will carry the A0 mention.
The A0 mention: a mention on the label, not a new class
Article 2 adds a paragraph to the annex on labels. That paragraph is headed "3. Classe « A0 »" ("A0 class"), which explains the phrase you see everywhere. Its first sentence, however, defines what it is: for a certificate on a building regarded as zero-emission, or "A0", "a mention appears on the label" (our translation).
The scale remains the one set by article L. 173-1-1 of the CCH: seven classes from A to G, with the same thresholds. "A0" does not replace A and does not sit above it. It is a mention added to an A or B label. A home rated B that carries it is still rated B.
The two conditions
For a certificate on an existing home, issued with the 3CL-DPE 2021 calculation method, the text sets two conditions (our translation, French wording in brackets). ECS stands for domestic hot water.
- the certificate's label must be A or B ("son étiquette DPE doit être A ou B");
- the energies used are exclusively renewable energies on site or nearby, electricity, or energy from a heating or cooling network regarded as efficient under article L. 711-4 of the French Energy Code. No heating or ECS installation is liable to use fossil energy on site or nearby ("Aucune installation de chauffage ou de production d'ECS n'est susceptible d'utiliser des énergies fossiles sur site ou à proximité").
Three consequences follow. A B label is enough. Electricity is enough too: a home heated by electric radiators can get the mention without a solar panel. Finally, a gas or oil boiler kept as a backup rules it out, because it is "liable" to use fossil energy.
A heating network only counts if it is "efficient". Under article L. 711-4 of the French Energy Code, this is the case when its share of renewable and recovered energy reaches a regulatory threshold. For the certificate, these rates are published in Annex 7 of the order of 15 September 2006. A network missing from that list is not regarded as efficient.
No emissions threshold is written into these conditions. The text looks at the class and the type of energy. The label, however, takes the worse of the two ratings, energy and climate. A home heated by gas or oil therefore rarely reaches A or B.
Five homes, five answers
| Home in mainland France, certificate issued in 2027 | Label | Energy and installations | A0 mention under the text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renovated house | B | Heat pump for heating and hot water, nothing else | Conditions met |
| Recent house | A | Heat pump and gas boiler kept as backup | No: fossil installation |
| Flat | B | Electric radiators and electric hot-water tank | Conditions met, without renewables |
| Flat | B | District heating network | Yes if the network is efficient, no otherwise |
| Flat | C | All-electric | No: neither A nor B |
What the EU directive says
The directive, for its part, speaks of classes. Its article 19 requires a scale from A to G in which A stands for zero-emission buildings. Member States that already designated such buildings as "A0" on 29 May 2026 may keep that designation instead of class A. The directive also allows an optional A+ class. France has created neither an A0 class nor an A+ class: it keeps the 2021 scale and adds a mention.
Renewables and other new information on the 2027 French EPC
The 2021 certificate already deals with renewables in three ways. It lists the permanently installed equipment (point 9.a of article 4). It gives a heating network's renewable and recovered energy rate (former point 9.b). And it already deducts self-consumed photovoltaic electricity from consumption (point 3.a). What it does not say is how much the home produces.
Three quantified sections
From 1 January 2027, article 1 adds three sections (our translation):
- 9.b: the total renewable energy produced on site in kWh, and the output of each renewable source;
- 9.c: the same output as a share of final energy consumption, where "the energy consumption to be considered includes self-consumption";
- 9.d: the main energy carrier or main energy source, in primary energy and in final energy.
The carrier is the form of energy: electricity, gas, wood or a network. Final energy is the energy you pay for. Primary energy adds production and transport losses: electricity is multiplied by a conversion factor. These sections are displays. None of them enters the class calculation.
Article 4 also replaces Annex 10. Each renewable item of equipment gets a pictogram: solar panels, heat pump, geothermal system, thermodynamic water heater, wood heating, efficient network, wind turbine, combined heat and power. For wood, renewable output is equal to the wood consumed for heating. Heat captured by a heat pump also counts as on-site output.
Worked example: a wood-heated house
Scenario — pellet stove, electric hot water and backup
Take a house in mainland France assessed in 2027. Its certificate shows 9,000 kWh of wood and 6,000 kWh of electricity a year. These are illustrative figures.
| Section | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 9.b — renewable output | Equal to wood consumption | 9,000 kWh |
| 9.c — share of consumption | 9,000 ÷ 15,000 | 60% |
| 9.d — carrier in final energy | 9,000 of wood against 6,000 of electricity | Wood |
| 9.d — carrier in primary energy | Wood × 1 = 9,000; electricity × 1.7 = 10,200 | Electricity |
| Energy class | No section enters the calculation | Unchanged |
The text does not say how to identify the main carrier. We take the energy consumed most. In final energy, wood comes first. In primary energy, electricity moves ahead. The same home therefore shows two answers, both correct.
Heating lifespan, flexibility, low temperature
Article 1 adds two points. For a single-family house, they are points 19 and 20 of article 4 (our translation):
- 19. an assessment of the remaining lifespan of the heating system, and of the air-conditioning system where there is one;
- 20. the ability of the house to respond to external signals and adjust its energy consumption to support the flexibility of the electricity system; and the ability of the heat emission and distribution system to run at low temperature, or at temperatures giving better efficiency, where relevant.
This is information, with no obligation attached. A short remaining lifespan signals a replacement to budget for. Emitters suited to low temperature make it easier to fit a heat pump. Flexibility tells you whether the home can shift its consumption on a signal from the grid.
What the order of 11 June 2026 on the DPE does not change, and what is still a draft
What does not change
No threshold moves. The classes remain those of our guide to French EPC classes A to G. Validity remains ten years: see the validity period of the French EPC.
The decency timetable does not move either. In mainland France, a home rated G has not been regarded as decent since 1 January 2025. Homes rated F follow on 1 January 2028. Homes rated E follow on 1 January 2034. The rule sits in article 6 of Law no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989. The A0 mention plays no part in it.
What can move a letter comes from the other text. In mainland France, the electricity conversion factor falls from 1.9 to 1.7 for certificates issued from 1 January 2027 (order of 19 August 2026). See the electricity conversion factor and your home.
Finally, nothing new on summer comfort. The certificate already rates it on a three-level scale. No text has followed the minister's announcement of July 2026: see the summer comfort letter announced for the French EPC.
What is still a draft on 10 October 2026
Article R. 126-15 of the CCH still excludes two categories from the certificate. The first is listed or registered historic monuments. The second is residential buildings intended to be used for less than four months a year. According to Infodiag (17 September 2026), a draft decree would remove both exclusions. The French National Housing Council reportedly gave a favourable opinion in early July 2026. Entry into force is mentioned for the first quarter of 2027. On 10 October 2026, the decree has not been published.
An update of the calculation method is also being prepared. A working document was added on 2 July 2026 to the public repository of ADEME's EPC Observatory (ADEME: the French Agency for Ecological Transition). Trade press expects an order in "autumn 2026" (audit-diagnostics.fr, 8 September 2026). No order has been published: nobody knows what it will change to the classes.
Lastly, the directive was due to be transposed by 29 May 2026. The order of 11 June 2026 implements its part on the content of the certificate. The rest goes through decrees, such as the one on exclusions, or through legislation. The bill adapting French law to EU law was passed by the Senate on 18 February 2026. It has since been under committee review at the Assemblée nationale.
⚠️ Warning: some websites announce a mandatory certificate from January 2027 for historic monuments or homes intended to be used for less than four months a year. That is a draft presented as a rule. Until a text is published in the Journal officiel, it does not apply.
Seller, landlord, buyer: what should you do?
You are selling or letting with a valid certificate
You have nothing to do. No text requires you to redo your certificate to obtain the A0 mention. A certificate issued from 1 January 2027 will include the new sections, but that is a choice, at your own cost. Check your letter first: without A or B, the mention is out of reach.
You are buying
Read the new sections as clues, not guarantees. The A0 mention signals an A or B label with no fossil energy; it guarantees nothing else. No text we have read attaches a tax benefit, a grant or any particular right to it.
You are planning works
Is your home rated A or B but still fitted with a gas or oil boiler as backup? That boiler is what rules it out of the mention. Conversely, solar panels do not earn the mention for a home rated C.
What to check on your DPE: its issue date, its expiry date, its final letter, and whether a gas or oil boiler is present, even as backup.
OneDpe "My DPE in 2027" simulator
With your certificate number, or your primary energy consumption and floor area, the tool compares your label with the one your home would get on the mainland-France 1.7 scale. If you enter figures manually, it also asks for the heating type and the scale your figure comes from; add your climate label as well. With the number, the tool reads it from the certificate. It calculates neither the A0 mention nor renewable output. It tells you whether your letter can be A or B, the first condition for the mention.
Conclusion
From 1 January 2027, the French EPC will tell you more about your home. It will quantify its renewable output, name its main energy carrier and assess the remaining lifespan of its heating. A or B labels may carry the "A0" mention. All their energy must then be renewable (on site or nearby), electric or from an efficient heating or cooling network, with no fossil heating or hot-water installation on site or nearby. The certificate will require nothing more of you. The other announced reforms are, on 10 October 2026, still drafts.
Before aiming for the mention, check the letter it depends on with the My DPE in 2027 simulator.
