Energy declaration and energy class in Sweden: what the letter means for your costs

The energy class is a letter from A to G that shows how much energy the home draws. A is the lowest, G the highest, and a home that meets today’s new-build requirements lands on C or better. A lower letter means a higher heating bill every month, so here is what it actually costs you and what you are entitled to as a buyer.

What the letter really measures

The energy class is built on the home’s primary energy number: energy use per square metre per year, weighted by energy source and adjusted for where in the country the home sits. The class is set by comparing that number with the requirement for a newly built home of the same type. It is relative. There are no fixed kWh limits per letter, just a percentage of the new-build requirement.

Energy class	Share of the new-build requirement
A	Up to 50 percent
B	50 to 75 percent
C	75 to 100 percent
D	100 to 135 percent
E	135 to 180 percent
F	180 to 235 percent
G	More than 235 percent

Since 25 May 2026 there is also a top class A0, a zero-emission building with class A energy performance, no on-site fossil combustion and systems that can respond to control signals. You will mostly meet it in new builds.

An older home in class D to G is entirely normal. The letter says nothing about whether the home is well built or pleasant, only how much energy it needs. What matters to you is what that energy costs.

What a poorer class costs you

There is no official price per class, because the class measures energy and not kronor. The good news is that you can work it out yourself. Take the home’s energy use in kWh per year, which is in the energideklaration, and multiply by your energy price.

Age gives you a pointer. A single-family house built up to 1940 uses around 110 kWh per square metre per year for heating and hot water. One built in 2021 or later manages on about 39 kWh, nearly three times less. The average across all single-family houses is around 90 kWh per square metre.

Worked example: a 160 square metre villa from the 1940s draws roughly 35,000 kWh a year for heating and hot water. At an energy price of 1.50 kr per kWh that is just over 52,000 kr a year, against far less in a newer and tighter home. That is the figure you want in your monthly budget, not the letter on its own.

Valid for ten years, and your right as a buyer

An energideklaration is valid for ten years and must be drawn up by an independent certified energy expert. The building owner is responsible for it. At a sale there must be a declaration no more than ten years old, so look for the date. If it is close to ten years, a new one may be needed.

If the declaration is missing entirely, the law protects you. Ask for it before the purchase. If the seller still provides none, you may, within six months of taking possession, have one drawn up at the seller’s expense. That right is mandatory and cannot be contracted away, so you are never left without the information.

The new EU rules, and what they do not mean

The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, EPBD, came into force in 2024 and is being written into Swedish law during 2026. Around it circulates the worry that the EU will force house owners to renovate. You can set that worry down.

For homes, the directive sets no requirements on individual buildings. Sweden has to lower the average energy use of the whole housing stock over time, and chose the route of grants and support rather than compulsion. The energy-efficiency grant for single-family houses is being extended towards 2030. The minimum-performance requirements on individual buildings apply only to non-residential premises.

What the directive does that touches you concerns new buildings, not existing ones:

• New buildings must be zero-emission from 2030, publicly owned ones already from 2028.
• No public subsidies for stand-alone fossil-fuel boilers since 2025.
• A solar requirement for new residential buildings from late 2029.

Buy an existing villa or co-op flat and you face no renovation requirement. The energy class tells you the running cost; it is not a binding instruction.

What you do as a buyer

• Find the energy class and the declaration date in the listing
• Take the kWh per year from the declaration and convert it to kronor with your energy price
• Put that heating cost in your monthly budget, not just the fee and interest
• If the class is D or worse: think about what better windows or a heat pump would cut the use to
• If the declaration is missing: ask for it, and remember your right to have one drawn up at the seller’s expense

A poorer energy class is no reason to walk away from a home. It is a cost you can work out in advance, and an item you can improve over time.