In the European Union (EU),the building sector is estimated to be responsible for approximately 40% of the total energy end-usage. Moreover, it is estimated that 97% of the existing buildings in the EU must be renovated to achieve the 2050 environmental goals. To a high extend this estimation is based on the energy performance certificates (EPC) issued so far in the different EU Member States (MS). An EPC results from several calculations made by an expert to estimate a building’s energy usage and efficiency. These calculations are based on different measurements, assumptions, and standards depending on the country where the building is located. The objective behind these certificates is to raise awareness of energy efficiency among the owners and tenants, promote the refurbishment of the building, and assess the overall country building stock. Even though the EPCs are promising and well anchored in the MS, they usually show a significant difference between the measured and estimated energy usage because they are based on static calculations that are not able to reflect dynamic nature of real building use, occupants in the building and boundary condition. This difference is known as the performance gap and has been studied in several EU countries already. To solve this issue, one of the proposed solutions is the use of more dynamic modelling techniques together with measurements of indoor environment and energy in buildings and use this additional information to develop more reliable certification/assessment scheme.
The overall objective of the EDYCE project is to develop methods and utilise existing tools that would support shift of the current static EPC towards dynamic EPC (DEPC). EDYCE aims to investigate, develop and demonstrate a more systematic approach for the dynamic energy labelling of the European building stock aiming at achieving better real energy class by detecting system faults, improvement of the operation possibilities, recommendations for energy renovation. The methodology proposed by the project is based on an identification of a minimum and sufficient number of inputs, allowing for dynamic assessment of energy performance of the building. The assessment consists of collection of necessary static data, development of dynamic models, detection of indoor environment, measurement of actual energy consumption and detection of adapted condition of use of the building and finally development of KPIs that could be used to assess building performance with respect to energy, indoor climate and free running operation potentials.
The specific project objectives and project outcomes are listed and summarized in the bullet points below:
- To better understand building performance -> DEPC method and EDCYE platform developed.
- To become able to detect and reduce performance gap -> specific KPIs targeting energy and indoor environment identified, use of monitored data implemented in the methodology, algorithms for smart heat meter data disaggregation for space heating and domestic hot water developed and validated.
- To identify successful energy renovations -> joint expert and analytical renovation approach, change of subsidy eligibility in Geneve canton.
- To become more credible to end users -> validated models, hourly based modelling, adapted condition of use and support of monitored data.
- To react to energy misuse -> weekly aggregated hourly data from validated models and monitoring, possibility for predictions.
- To be user friendly in communicating results -> results graphical visualisation, EDYCE web platform and mobile application.
- To demonstrate EDYCE approach -> multiple buildings evaluated with respect to their data availability and needs.
