RGIE / AREI

Belgium’s general regulation on electrical installations. What the RGIE / AREI 2020 covers, who inspects against it, what the Conformity Certificate actually is, and what WireSketch does — and doesn’t — model for Belgian installations.

What RGIE / AREI is

RGIE (Règlement général sur les installations électriques) and AREI (Algemeen Reglement op de Elektrische Installaties) are the French- and Dutch-language names for the same Belgian federal regulation governing electrical installations. The current version, generally referred to as RGIE / AREI 2020, was published in the Moniteur Belge / Belgisch Staatsblad on 28 October 2019 via Royal Decrees of 8 September 2019, and became applicable on 1 June 2020.

Unlike NEN 1010 or BS 7671 — which are standards published by a standards body and then referenced by regulation — RGIE / AREI is itself the regulation. It is the binding text. The underlying technical content tracks the HD 60364 family that the rest of the EU also transposes, but in Belgium the regulator-issued document is what an inspector checks against.

Who RGIE / AREI applies to

All electrical installations in Belgium, residential and otherwise. The 2020 modernisation reorganised the older RGIE text and clarified scope; the document covers design, execution and inspection.

The enforcement model: approved-body inspection

Belgium’s certification model is distinct from the contractor self-certification or competent-person schemes seen elsewhere. Residential installations must be inspected by an approved body (organisme agréé / erkend organisme), and the approved body — not the installer — issues the Conformity Certificate. Approved bodies operating in Belgium include Vinçotte, OCB, BTV, SGS and others.

The Conformity Certificate is the legally auditable artefact:

• Required for new installations before connection to the distribution network.
• Required after significant alterations.
• Required for periodic inspection — 25 years is the periodic-inspection interval for domestic installations under RGIE / AREI.
• Required at the change of occupant in some scenarios (e.g. property transfer).

The implication for any planning tool: the WireSketch output is not the artefact the Belgian inspector will sign. It is the artefact the client and the installer agree on before the inspector ever arrives.

Key requirements

The technical baseline tracks the HD 60364 family, with Belgian additions and editorial choices in the RGIE / AREI text:

• Bathroom volumes — the Belgian text uses “volumes” (0, 1, 2, 3) that mirror the IEC 60364-7-701 model.
• RCD / differential protection — required for socket and bathroom circuits per the Belgian transposition.
• Earthing and equipotential bonding — specific requirements for the residential earth and bathroom supplementary bonding.
• Selection and erection of cables — Belgian cable conventions and identification rules apply.
• Initial and periodic verification — against the approved-body inspection regime, with the 25-year residential periodic interval.

WireSketch’s research did not surface a verified primary-source enumeration of every Belgian-specific socket-density, circuit-count and AFDD-scope rule. A Belgian installer or approved-body inspector will know them; this page does not invent them.

What WireSketch models from RGIE / AREI

Honest answer: WireSketch does not yet model RGIE / AREI as a separate region. The closest selectors are DIN 18015 / VDE 0100 (Germany) for a generic HD 60364 baseline, and the future NEN 1010 (Netherlands) page describes a neighbouring HD 60364 transposition that reads similarly. With DIN selected in Belgium you get:

• IEC 60364 wet-room Zone 0/1/2 in bathroom mode — the same model the Belgian text uses for its volumes.
• Type A RCD as the default main protection — a reasonable residential baseline in Belgium, though the Belgian text has its own scope rules.
• Kitchen-rule dedicated circuits for heavy appliances — sensible everywhere in the HD 60364 family.
• Generic installation-zone overlays drawn from DIN 18015 — useful as a planning aid; they are not Belgian conventions.

What WireSketch doesn’t model

• RGIE / AREI Belgian-specific additions — socket-density rules, mandatory circuit counts per room, Belgian-specific cable and identification conventions.
• Conformity Certificate format — the approved-body certificate is the legal compliance artefact, not anything produced in the app.
• Periodic-inspection scheduling — the 25-year residential interval is regulatory context, not enforced by the planner.
• Property-transfer inspection scenarios — the app does not flag when a transaction triggers an inspection requirement.
• Distribution-network connection workflow — the planner does not interface with the Belgian distribution-network operators’ connection-acceptance process.

Practical tip

If you are a homeowner in Belgium planning a remodel or new build: use WireSketch with the DIN 18015 selector to capture the layout you want, generate the Renovation Brief PDF, and give it to your installer. Be clear that the document is a planning sketch, that the installer will design and execute to RGIE / AREI 2020, and that an approved body will inspect and issue the Conformity Certificate before energisation.

If you are a Belgian installer, treat WireSketch as a layout and client-communication tool. Translate to RGIE / AREI conventions in your own design package and prepare the as-built for the approved-body inspection.