For a long time, the research and policy focus has been on reducing energy demand and increasing energy efficiency. However, with increasing renewable energy production, also the profile of this energy demand and the potential for demand side management needs to be assessed. Moreover, due to energy distribution restrictions, (simultaneous) peak powers need to be reduced or shifted. Regarding dwellings, for which heating still determines the bulk of the energy use in most of the EU, this means that reducing, or at least better characterizing the heat load becomes more important. The current method for the calculation of the design heat load, the EN12831-1, is a static method, however, and tends to overestimate the heat load. Our research aims at reducing this gap between measurements, dynamic simulation results and calculations of the heat load and give insights on the physical processes behind. DOC_METADES:Review the increasing importance of heat load and its impact on the calculation of the design heat load. DOC_METADES_NL: CST_DETAIL_CONTENU: CST_DETAIL_LEGENDE: CST_DETAIL_LEGENDE2: CST_DETAIL_LEGENDE3: CST_DETAIL_LEGENDE4: CST_DETAIL_LEGENDE5: CST_DETAIL_LEGENDE6: