The sustainable energy renovation of historical buildings is a challenge for all European countries. It is crucial for their conservation as well as for urban and rural development. Nonetheless, proposing adequate interventions requires appropriate investigation efforts. This paper presents a specific approach for performing the energy diagnosis of occupied historical buildings, developed under the contraints of several ongoing research projects. It is shown how photogrammetry and wireless sensor networks can be combined to produce rich datasets, while keeping disturbances for occupants at a minimum. Within this multi-disciplinary investigation program, the focus is also put on the production of input and validation data for implementing dynamic energy simulations. A case study is presented to illustrate the deployment of the proposed methodology. Only two site visits allowed to capture a large quantity of descriptive and performance information, which was valorized through clear protocols for sampling and formatting the data