What changes have occurred in the RITE 2007?

The RITE 2007, Regulations for Thermal Installations in Buildings, is a regulatory document that sets the requirements for energy efficiency and safety that thermal installations in buildings must meet to respond to the demand for comfort and health of the occupants during the design, assembly, use, and maintenance phases.

What is a thermal installation?

The document considers a thermal installation to be any fixed installation that serves to climatize (ventilation, refrigeration, and heating installations) or to produce ACS (sanitary hot water). Every thermal installation must satisfy the requirements of well-being and hygiene for occupants in all types of buildings.

RITE 2007: modifications

According to the revision that must be made of the Regulation every five years, the RITE 2013 amends some articles of the previous RITE 2007. These modifications are made in order to introduce the requirements of the European Directive 2010/31 concerning the energy efficiency of buildings. In this article, we present a summary of the most notable modifications.

• The scope of application is expanded. While in the previous one it specified that the RITE "was not applicable to thermal installations of industrial, agricultural, or other processes", in RITE 2013 this note is complemented by adding that it will not be applicable to "the part that is not intended to meet the demand for thermal well-being and hygiene of people".
• The maintenance certificate for the installation must include a summary of the annual consumption of the installation.
• The requirements for installing companies are increased. A handler's card will be required when working with fluorinated gases, and the capital to be covered by the company's policy will be increased in specific cases.

How do the modifications affect my ventilation system?

The classification of the external air (ODA) is reduced, going from 5 categories to three. This affects the scheme of filter and prefilter classes (as these depend on the IDA—classification of indoor air—and ODA).

Some concepts also change. Thus, the "extracted air" of RITE 2007 is now called "extraction air" in RITE 2013. Additionally, the classification nomenclature for this type of air also changes. In the previous regulation, they were classified as EXR-1, EXR-2, EXR-3, and EXR-4. In 2013, the EXR qualification becomes AE. Likewise, it specifies that, in the case of combining two types of air, the mixture will be cataloged with the qualification of the most unfavorable type.

Modifications in heat generation equipment

• In the case of heat generation equipment that uses biomass, the minimum required efficiency increases from 75% to 80%.

• The installation of individual boilers and gas heaters of up to 70 Kw type B (atmospheric heaters) is prohibited unless they are located in premises that meet the requirements related to machine rooms. Due to the revisions that must be made to the document every five years, another revision is expected for the year 2018.