Does the automation requirement apply to your building?
What the law says
The requirement is set out in the Finnish act on equipping buildings with charging points for electric vehicles and with automation and control systems (733/2020). Section 13 reads, in the original Finnish:
Rakennuksen omistajan on huolehdittava, että käytössä oleva muu rakennus kuin asuinrakennus, jonka lämmitysjärjestelmän tai yhdistetyn tilojen lämmitys- ja ilmanvaihtojärjestelmän nimellisteho on yli 290 kilowattia, on varustettu rakennuksen automaatio- ja ohjausjärjestelmällä viimeistään 31 päivänä joulukuuta 2024.
Three details are worth reading closely. The duty rests on the owner of the building, not on the occupant or the maintenance company. It applies to a building other than a residential building, so housing companies are outside its scope. And the limit is nominal power, not measured consumption.
In practice this means schools, day-care centres, government buildings, offices, retail premises and healthcare buildings — buildings in which the heating power exceeds the limit.
How to find out whether the limit is exceeded
Nominal power is the design power of the system, not the amount of energy consumed. It cannot be read from the energy bill. The figure is found in the design documents of the heat distribution room or the air conditioning system, on equipment nameplates and in the dimensioning data of the heat exchanger. If the documents are no longer available — which is common in older buildings — the power can be established from the equipment on site.
On a survey visit we check this for you and write it down, whether or not the building falls within the requirement.
New buildings and renovations
The same limit of 290 kilowatts applies to a new building for which a building permit is applied for, and to a building undergoing renovation or alteration work. These are covered by sections 11 and 12 of the act. In a new building the automation and control system is therefore designed in from the start, and in a renovation it comes up for assessment as part of the project.
Exceptions and supervision
The act provides exceptions to the obligations in sections 12 and 13. Whether the exceptions apply to a particular building is decided case by case, so it is worth checking the text of the act or asking us before drawing conclusions.
Supervision belongs to the municipal building control authority. The act ties supervision to those projects that require a permit under the Building Act: compliance is supervised in connection with permit projects. In practice the matter therefore arises at the latest when a permit is applied for.
What an automation and control system does
The system measures the conditions in a building and, on that basis, controls heating, ventilation and domestic water. It replaces manual adjustments with continuous control based on measurement data, and it sends an alarm when something deviates from normal. What is building automation
Meeting the requirement is therefore not a formality: the same system makes the building compliant, lowers its energy consumption and reports faults before the users notice them.
Frequently asked questions
Does the requirement apply to a housing company?
No. The act leaves residential buildings outside the requirement. In a housing company automation is worth renewing when spare parts are no longer available, when its program cannot be changed, or when heating costs are higher than in comparable buildings. When to renew automation
The deadline has passed. What now?
The obligation does not disappear when the deadline passes. The first step is to establish whether the building's nominal power exceeds the limit and whether the current system meets the requirements. After that it is clear whether a new system is needed or whether the existing one can be completed.
Is the automation already in the building enough?
It depends on what it does. An old controller that only runs the heating on a time switch and provides no measurement data is not the same thing as an automation and control system. On a survey visit we go through what the building has and what is missing.
Who is responsible in a leased building?
The act places the duty on the owner of the building. How responsibility is divided within the lease is a contractual question that does not change the responsibility set by the act.
Contact us
On a survey visit we measure the building's power ratings, go through the current automation and tell you whether you fall within the requirement and what it means.
- Call010 325 4300On call around the clock
- Emailhksaato@
hksaato.fi - Visiting addressKilonkallio 3 A, 02610 Espoo
