Main heating, or room by room: the rule in your country decides.

The short answer

In France, we have found no text that prevents you from heating a whole existing home with electric underfloor heating. In Wallonia, Flanders, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, a text limits direct electric heating, or rules it out as main heating. One room or a bathroom remains possible in France, Wallonia, Luxembourg and, except for an extension subject to a permit, in Flanders, within the limit specific to each text. In the Netherlands, the official documents point that way without naming electric underfloor heating: have it confirmed.

We sell this heating: read this page with that in mind. Each rule is cited with its text, at the bottom of the page. We are not lawyers, and only the local authority decides a case.

Country by country

The system we fit installs 115 W per m² of film, over 75 to 85% of the floor area of a room: that is the figure to compare with the caps.

France

In an existing home, the order that sets the requirements for existing buildings does not cap the output of electric heating and does not rule it out as main heating; we have not found any other text that does so for a home. One special case: within the perimeter of a classified district heating network, a building whose heating exceeds 30 kW may be required to connect to it when major works are carried out. Two rules apply to the fitting:

• Room-by-room control. Every new emitter has a manual off switch and automatic control according to the temperature of the room. For a Joule-effect emitter built into a wall, floor or ceiling, “in particular for underfloor heating”, the variation over time of this control stays below 1.8 K, and it can receive a control command for at least one of four modes: comfort, setback, frost protection, off.
• 28 °C at most in contact with the finished floor, under the basic conditions of the calculation, for any underfloor heating, since 1978.

In a new build, the regulations count each kilowatt-hour of electricity as 2.3 in primary energy: the project’s energy calculation says whether direct electric heating is suitable there. What France does not give is grants: see the drawbacks.

Belgium

The heating of buildings is a matter for the Regions. Wallonia and Flanders each have their own cap; in Brussels, we have not found one.

Wallonia

The text: “The total specific electrical output delivered by the direct electric heating devices present in an EPB unit shall not exceed” 2,500 W up to 150 m² of heated floor area; beyond that, 15 W per additional m², that is 3,250 W for 200 m². It specifies: “Direct electric heating means all heating systems based on the Joule effect”, including “electric underfloor heating”.

• When. On any installation, any replacement, any modernisation, in any building, new builds included, “where this is technically, economically and functionally feasible”: the Walloon administration writes that these requirements apply “regardless of any EPB procedure” linked to a permit.
• Exemptions. Replacing an appliance with an appliance of the same type, without increasing the output. Or connecting the appliance to a device which guarantees that it uses only renewable electricity produced on site, at the moment it is produced.
• The document. At the end of the work, the owner must have an assessment report signed by its author, with the calculation of the output.

What that leaves: at 115 W per m² of film, 2,500 W makes about 21 m² of film, one large room or two small ones, if there is no other direct electric heating in the home. The cap counts all the appliances present: a convector or an electric radiator already in place is deducted.

Flanders

The text, translated: when a direct electric heating installation is fitted, the output may not exceed 15 W per m² in the building being renovated or in the new part. The floor area is the gross floor area: that of the renovated home or, when extending, that of the extension alone. Named are: storage heating, the convector, electric underfloor heating, radiant heating.

• When. In a renovation subject to a permit or a notification, if the involvement of an architect is required. The Flemish administration cites the fitting of a heating installation, on its own, among the works that are not subject to it. But as soon as the building falls under these rules, they apply to all the works on the site, even those that do not require a permit by themselves. The cap applies to applications filed since 2016 at least.
• Major energy renovation, new build. This cap does not apply to homes there: it is the E-level that decides, E60 and E30. In new builds, the administration writes that direct electric heating weighs very unfavourably on this level, unless the heat demand is very low.
• Exceptions. Replacing a defective appliance with a similar appliance. For applications filed since 1 January 2025, the direct electric heating of a room that also has water-based surface heating is not counted.
• The fine. The Flemish energy decree provides for €1.75 per watt above the cap.

What that leaves, when the rule applies: for a home of 150 m² gross, 2,250 W, that is one room. For an extension of 25 m², 375 W: our system does not fit within that.

Brussels

We have not found a cap of this kind: the Brussels Environment page on the requirements for technical installations covers boilers, heat pumps and fuel-burning appliances, not direct electric heating. We have not read the texts themselves. Ask your EPB adviser before deciding.

Luxembourg

The text: “For the production of useful thermal energy, no direct electric heating may be used as the main heating of the building. Partial direct electric heating is possible, for example for frost protection or the heating of bathrooms and for the production of domestic hot water.”

• When. For a new building, an extension, and renovation works that affect the energy behaviour of the building, with or without a building permit. For technical installations, the requirement covers only the newly installed parts, if their integration into the existing installation is possible. The regulation does not say whether the fitting of heating alone counts among these works: we read it that way, out of caution.

What that leaves: partial heating. The regulation itself gives the example of the bathroom; it does not say where “partial” ends for another room or an extension.

The Netherlands

The text requires of a technical heating system an energy performance value of at most 1.31: the calculated fossil primary energy, relative to the net heat demand. It applies to construction, and in existing buildings when a system is fitted or partly renewed; the explanatory memorandum to the decree specifies: when a central heat generator is changed, or when a third or more of the emitters are installed, replaced or improved.

Three official documents say what this means for direct electricity:

• The explanatory memorandum to the 2020 decree: the decree no longer sets a requirement for local heating systems, which the European ecodesign regulation already governs.
• The page of the public agency RVO, checked on 3 July 2026: central heating systems using electrical resistance are not allowed; local electric heaters controlled room by room are, and it gives infrared panels and electric radiators as examples.
• The guide published by RVO in 2022, commissioned by the ministry: the exclusion also applies to electric underfloor heating “as main heating”; direct electric heating is allowed only with stand-alone appliances.

For main heating, the guide’s answer is therefore no. For a room heated as a supplement, these documents point towards local heating being allowed, without naming electric underfloor heating: have it confirmed in writing by the municipality, which checks the application of these rules. The installer, for its part, assesses the performance of the system and hands the document to the owner.

What remains possible

• One room or a bathroom, within the limit of your country’s text; in the Netherlands, after confirmation by the municipality. An extension is checked separately: in Flanders, it has its own cap, 15 W per m² of the extension. It is a job we design like any other: describe your project.
• In Wallonia, more with your solar panels, if a device guarantees that the heating uses only their production, at that moment.
• To heat a whole home outside France, the rule most often leads to a heat pump: the page heat pump or carbon underfloor heating sets out the figures on both sides.

What we have not checked

• The texts of the Brussels-Capital Region themselves: we have read only the page of its administration.
• German-speaking Belgium: according to our reading of the transfer decrees, the Walloon rule applies there; no administration says so in writing.
• The French rules for new extensions, and those for the overseas departments.
• Municipal by-laws.

Before you sign, three questions

To us as to any other installer:

1. Which rule applies to my address and to my works?
2. What output of direct electric heating will I have after the works, and what is the cap?
3. Which document will you give me at the end?

The other limits of this heating are set out on a separate page. The system itself is described layer by layer.

Updated on 9 October 2026.