BPIE: Europe's buildings under the microscope - PU Europe

Important note
The elements in the prescriptive criteria can act as supplementary demands or as an alternative approach for setting requirements. In some
cases they represent embedded elements in the performance-based methodology.
Other notes
1
In some cases this may cover only heating demands, and in others it may also include DHW, electricity and other end uses;2 The Finnish legislation
allows authorities to decide whether the building regulations will be applied to the renovation or not. New EE requirements will be in place in 2012; 3
Slovenian requirements will be in place from end 2014/beg 2015.
Legend
RE: Residential
NRE: Non-residential
Tin: Indoor temperature
DHW: Domestic hot water
AC: Airconditioning system
BO: Boiler
P: Partly
Y: Yes
N: No
Performance based requirements for new buildings
For many countries the EPBD was the means of introducing new elements in their building codes prior
to which there were no energy performance requirements concerning the building as a whole or specific
elements. Nearly all countries have now adopted a national methodology which sets performance-based
requirements for new buildings. For countries in which prescriptive requirements existed before 2002
(e.g. Czech Republic, Belgium, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Poland), there was a shift towards a
holistic-based (i.e. whole building) approach whereby existing single element requirements in many
cases were tightened. Table 2B6 gives an overview of the current requirements in place. In some cases, the
single element requirements are just supplementary demands to the energy performance requirements
ensuring the efficiency of individual parts of a building is sufficient (e.g. Denmark). In others, they act as
alternative methods where the two approaches exist in parallel (e.g. Norway, Spain, Poland, Switzerland);
the first based on the performance of single elements and the second on the overall performance of
a building. In Switzerland, for example, the holistic approach is used mainly for new buildings and the
single element approach for shallow or deep renovations while in deep renovation cases, the holistic
approach is sometimes chosen. In countries where the performance-based approach is the main form of
requirement, most of the elements listed in the prescriptive criteria of Table 2B1 are already integral parts
of the methodology,while additional elements such as RES (solar collectors, PV, heat pumps), summer
comfort, indoor climate are embedded in the methodology.
While no country has directly and fully applied the CEN standards in their methodology procedures,
many countries have adopted an approach which is broadly compatible with the CEN methodology 31
32
. A variety of reasons were cited for not using the CEN standards, including difficulty of converting into
practical procedures, timing and copyright issues. Most national procedures are applied as software
programmes and many countries (but by no means all) have adopted a CEN based methodology (EN
15603: Energy Performance of Buildings) and/or are using the EN 13790 monthly calculation procedure,
as the basis for the calculation “engine” for simple building. Others allow proprietary dynamic simulation
(for more complex buildings), whilst others have developed their own national methods. The assessment
of existing buildings (for building code or Certification purposes) is often based on a reduced data-set
model.
A detailed assessment of the energy performance requirements is provided in Table 2B7. It can be
seen that many different approaches have been applied and no two countries have adopted the same
approach. It is important not to attempt to compare the performance requirements set by Member
States, given the variety of calculation methods used to measure compliance and major differences in
definitions (e.g. definitions of primary and final energy, heated floor area, carbon conversion factors,
31
Concerted Action Implementing the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive April 2011 www.epbd-ca.eu
32
CENSE –Towards effective support of the EPBD implementation & acceleration in EU Member States www.iee-cense.eu
78 | Europe’s buildings under the microscope