Abstract: A method for determining a housing capable of accommodating waste heat generating electronic components on a printed circuit board includes: detecting an arrangement of the electronic components on a mounting side of the printed circuit board; determining several functional areas within the mounting side in which at least one of the electronic components is arranged according to the detected arrangement; assigning a thermal function to each of the functional areas, each of the thermal functions comprising: a function for generating waste heat due to a power dissipation of the at least one electronic component arranged in a respective functional area according to the detected arrangement during operation, and a maximum temperature up to which the at least one electronic component arranged in the respective functional area is operable without damage and performance limitation.