Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TIMEPAC (Towards innovative methods for energy performance assessment and certification of buildings)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-07-01 do 2022-12-31
As part of the EU's Green Deal framework, the European Commission has released the Renovation Wave strategy aimed at enhancing the energy performance of buildings by promoting building renovation, with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. EPCs have the potential to be useful tools to reach this goal by increasing building renovation rates. However, it is widely acknowledged that current EPCs have significant limitations, such as poor data quality and reliability, inadequate integration with other data sources (such as sensors, smart meters, devices, online databases), and an inability to evaluate a building's performance over its entire lifecycle.
TIMEPAC aims to enhance existing energy certification processes by transitioning from static, single certifications to more comprehensive, dynamic approaches that take into account: a) data generated throughout the entire energy performance certification process, including generation, storage, analysis, and exploitation, and throughout all stages of the building lifecycle, from design to construction and operation; b) buildings as part of the built environment and therefore connected to energy distribution and transport networks; and c) buildings as dynamic entities that continuously evolve over time.
The work to be carried out in the project conveys reviewing existing barriers in the certification process (technical, methodological, and legislative); proposing specific solutions to enhance existing EPCs by utilizing effective and reliable indicators and methodologies; improving the connectivity of EPC databases with other data sources (such as BIM, cadastre, socioeconomic data and BACS); promoting the use of standardized procedures to interlink data; transitioning static EPCs into dynamic ones that include SRI and sustainability indicators; utilizing EPCs to evaluate the impact of building renovation scenarios at larger scales; and providing training materials for professional certifiers and other relevant stakeholders to improve their current practices in line with the latest EPBD recast.
TIMEPAC aims to enhance existing energy certification processes by transitioning from static, single certifications to more comprehensive, dynamic approaches that take into account: a) data generated throughout the entire energy performance certification process, including generation, storage, analysis, and exploitation, and throughout all stages of the building lifecycle, from design to construction and operation; b) buildings as part of the built environment and therefore connected to energy distribution and transport networks; and c) buildings as dynamic entities that continuously evolve over time.
The work to be carried out in the project conveys reviewing existing barriers in the certification process (technical, methodological, and legislative); proposing specific solutions to enhance existing EPCs by utilizing effective and reliable indicators and methodologies; improving the connectivity of EPC databases with other data sources (such as BIM, cadastre, socioeconomic data and BACS); promoting the use of standardized procedures to interlink data; transitioning static EPCs into dynamic ones that include SRI and sustainability indicators; utilizing EPCs to evaluate the impact of building renovation scenarios at larger scales; and providing training materials for professional certifiers and other relevant stakeholders to improve their current practices in line with the latest EPBD recast.
In the first half of the project, the preliminary contextual analysis of building certification in the six partner countries/regions planned in WP1 “Context Analysis to Support EPC Workflow” has been completed and the deliverables are available on the project website. Work on the Transversal Deployment Scenarios (WP2) is progressing according to plan and is scheduled to be completed by June 2023. WP3 “Verification Scenarios” has been started earlier than planned to serve as a link between the scenarios developed in WP2 and the training programme being currently being developed in WP4 “EPC Standardisation, Training and Capacity Building”.
Two out of the three planned workshops have already taken place, in Ljubljana on 14-15 December 2021 and in Torino on 20 November 2022. The abstracts from these workshops are available on the project website. Additionally, Regione Piamonte organized an event titled “The Evolution of Energy Performance Certificates in the framework of the Renovation Wave for Europe” on 5 May 2022, which aimed to provide professionals with an overview of certification in a European context.
Communication and dissemination activities have been carried out through multiple media, including the project website, social media channels, and the partners' own networks.
In February 2023, a survey was launched to identify the needs of stakeholders in building renovation. This survey has multiple objectives, including attracting potential users of the future TIMEPAC Academy and disseminating the project among professionals involved in building certification. The feedback received from respondents will help verify the feasibility of the envisioned certification scenarios in real-world applications by the involved professionals. The survey will also help to identify obstacles and training needs required to align with the revised EPBD directive.
Two out of the three planned workshops have already taken place, in Ljubljana on 14-15 December 2021 and in Torino on 20 November 2022. The abstracts from these workshops are available on the project website. Additionally, Regione Piamonte organized an event titled “The Evolution of Energy Performance Certificates in the framework of the Renovation Wave for Europe” on 5 May 2022, which aimed to provide professionals with an overview of certification in a European context.
Communication and dissemination activities have been carried out through multiple media, including the project website, social media channels, and the partners' own networks.
In February 2023, a survey was launched to identify the needs of stakeholders in building renovation. This survey has multiple objectives, including attracting potential users of the future TIMEPAC Academy and disseminating the project among professionals involved in building certification. The feedback received from respondents will help verify the feasibility of the envisioned certification scenarios in real-world applications by the involved professionals. The survey will also help to identify obstacles and training needs required to align with the revised EPBD directive.
At TIMEPAC, we are developing five future scenarios in which improved EPCs can help to improve the energy performance of buildings and current certification practices in accordance with the latest revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD):
- Generating enhanced EPCs with BIM data: BIM models can be used to generate EPCs in combination with advanced simulation tools. This would provide more precise information on the energy performance of the building.
- Enhancing EPC schemas through operational data integration: EPC data can be compared with information on actual energy consumption, usage of different energy sources, and control of building equipment. This would help provide credibility to the certificates, which is one of their main shortcomings at present.
- Integrating SRI and sustainability indicators in EPC: The energy performance of a building can be assessed through the EPC, but also with new instruments such as SRI and sustainability indicators included in the Level(s) framework.
- Creating Building Renovation Passports from data repositories: Building logbooks will be part of the pasports that will become mandatory in Europe. They will contain a renovation roadmap with regular updates of the EPC after each renovation. In this context, the EPC will no longer be a one-off assessment but a continuous assessment.
- Large scale statistical analysis of EPC databases: The large amount of data generated around building energy assessment and monitoring can facilitate large-scale analyses to predict the energy demand of buildings at multiple scales and the impact of retrofitting measures.
The procedures resulting from these scenarios will be verified in scenarios in six European countries: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain. Through the TIMEPAC Academy, the verified procedures will be utilized as training material for the professionals involved in the certification process.
The expected impact of the project outcomes are:
- The convergence of good quality and reliable energy performance assessment and certification will lead to greater uptake and compliance with EU Directives and related standards. The TIMEPAC certification guidelines will help to integrate different data sources, resulting in higher quality EPCs. This will increase the digitalization of certification, improve transparency in the real estate market, and fulfil central requirements of the EPBD.
- The application and compliance of EPCs and independent control systems with EU and national legislation will increase. The TIMEPAC outcomes will facilitate the generation of reliable EPCs at a low cost, improving the effectiveness of independent control systems without burdening administration.
- EPC databases will be used more frequently for compliance checking and verification, linking with financing schemes, and building stock characteristic research. By combining EPC databases with other data sources, TIMEPAC will contribute to make building certification more reliable for financing schemes and policy planning and evaluation.
- Inspections and energy audits will be increasingly integrated into EPCs. Currently, EPCs of existing buildings are often calculated based on default data, and actual performance deviates from what is stated in the EPC. Through the combination of different data sources, including operation data, it will be possible to reduce the performance gap.
- Generating enhanced EPCs with BIM data: BIM models can be used to generate EPCs in combination with advanced simulation tools. This would provide more precise information on the energy performance of the building.
- Enhancing EPC schemas through operational data integration: EPC data can be compared with information on actual energy consumption, usage of different energy sources, and control of building equipment. This would help provide credibility to the certificates, which is one of their main shortcomings at present.
- Integrating SRI and sustainability indicators in EPC: The energy performance of a building can be assessed through the EPC, but also with new instruments such as SRI and sustainability indicators included in the Level(s) framework.
- Creating Building Renovation Passports from data repositories: Building logbooks will be part of the pasports that will become mandatory in Europe. They will contain a renovation roadmap with regular updates of the EPC after each renovation. In this context, the EPC will no longer be a one-off assessment but a continuous assessment.
- Large scale statistical analysis of EPC databases: The large amount of data generated around building energy assessment and monitoring can facilitate large-scale analyses to predict the energy demand of buildings at multiple scales and the impact of retrofitting measures.
The procedures resulting from these scenarios will be verified in scenarios in six European countries: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain. Through the TIMEPAC Academy, the verified procedures will be utilized as training material for the professionals involved in the certification process.
The expected impact of the project outcomes are:
- The convergence of good quality and reliable energy performance assessment and certification will lead to greater uptake and compliance with EU Directives and related standards. The TIMEPAC certification guidelines will help to integrate different data sources, resulting in higher quality EPCs. This will increase the digitalization of certification, improve transparency in the real estate market, and fulfil central requirements of the EPBD.
- The application and compliance of EPCs and independent control systems with EU and national legislation will increase. The TIMEPAC outcomes will facilitate the generation of reliable EPCs at a low cost, improving the effectiveness of independent control systems without burdening administration.
- EPC databases will be used more frequently for compliance checking and verification, linking with financing schemes, and building stock characteristic research. By combining EPC databases with other data sources, TIMEPAC will contribute to make building certification more reliable for financing schemes and policy planning and evaluation.
- Inspections and energy audits will be increasingly integrated into EPCs. Currently, EPCs of existing buildings are often calculated based on default data, and actual performance deviates from what is stated in the EPC. Through the combination of different data sources, including operation data, it will be possible to reduce the performance gap.