Newsletter Issue 2/2014

March 2014

REHVA Community News

REHVA Annual Meeting 2014

"Energy efficient, smart and healthy buildings"

The VDI-Technical Division Building Services will host the REHVA Annual Meeting 2014 in Düsseldorf, Germany. From 28th to 30th April 2014 leading experts from the international building services community will be guests in Germany. More than 150 visitors are expected, when the VDI-GBG welcomes the members of REHVA, the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations. REHVA internal meetings and the REHVA General Assembly will be held around the technical conference “Energy efficient, smart and healthy buildings” at 30th April 2014 at the Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf Airport. The main topics of the conference are ventilation and indoor-air quality, cooling load and building automation. The conference language is English. Download the programme. Registration is open.

ACREX in New Delhi

REHVA was actively present during the latest edition of ACREX exhibition and conference in New Delhi. REHVA and ISHRAE (Indian Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers) renew the Memorandum of Understanding for two more years. Since the first signature of the MoU in 2012 between the two associations, several shared activities were organised in joint collaboration.
This year during the exhibition, REHVA prepared and distributed with the collaboration of Eurovent Certita Certification a special issue of the REHVA European HVAC Journal and sold guidebooks. REHVA had the opportunity to disseminate technology and information for mechanical services of buildings during the exhibition. At the REHVA-EBTC booth, participants had the opportunity to discuss and network.
REHVA, in collaboration with ISHRAE organized also a seminar on the topic of "Commissioning" on February 28th. In this workshop, the international development of commissioning process and how the third party commissioning process can be implemented in India were discussed. The primary goal of building commissioning, from an indoor environment and an energy perspective, is to verify and optimise the performance of building systems. The presentations of the seminar are available online.

REHVA Seminar during Aqua-Therm Prague - 5 March 2014

REHVA organized a seminar on "Technologies for nZEB" at Aqua-Therm Prague exhibition on March 5th. This seminar was well attended by more than 70 HVAC professionals. You can download all the presentations online.

REHVA and AICARR seminar at Mostra Convegno Expocomfort

REHVA organized on March 19th in collaboration with AiCARR, a seminar on Towards nearly zero retrofitted buildings, and prepared and distributed with the collaboration of Eurovent Certita Certification a special issue of the REHVA European HVAC Journal.

The topic of designing and constructing nearly zero energy buildings has been firstly addressed to new buildings. Nevertheless, the big challenge for the European Countries is to focus in increasing the energy performance of the existing building stock. As highlighted by several European projects and researches, the energy properties of buildings are really poor and high potentials of energy savings can be achieved by energy renovation actions.
In this scenario, it is important to analyse which are the real strategies to develop and the proper technologies to set for retrofitting existing building up to the target of "nearly zero energy, taking into account the suitable trade-off between energy and economical goals as introduced by the cost optimality approach.
All the presentations are available to download online.

REHVA Journal issues

The March issue is available online by clicking here. The featured articles are:

- nZEB definitions in Europe
- Construction Products Regulation (CPR) applies also to HVAC products
- Smart Micro Energy Network for Eco-Communities
- Total economy of windows and facades in low energy office buildings
- The performance assessments of fuel cell technology in residential application
To read all the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 REHVA Journals, please visit the REHVA Journal section in the REHVA website. Register online to get your free copy of the REHVA Journal!

The April issue of the REHVA Journal (3/2014) will focus on nZEB. The editor of this issue is Olli Seppänen (oseppanen@rehva.eu).
The June issue of the REHVA Journal (4/2014) will focus on Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation. The editor of this issue is Olli Seppänen (oseppanen@rehva.eu).

EU Project News

Expositions on 3ENCULT retrofit solutions for cultural buildings in Bologna 

The Urban Center of Bologna hosted an exposition about the 3ENCULT project from 20 February – 9 March 2014. On the Opening day, 3ENCULT Partner Bologna City organized also a conference about the results of the project. Further information are available in the project website.
3ENCULT aims at the development of passive and active solutions for conservation and energy efficient retrofit including available products and new developments. 3ENCULT defined diagnosis and monitoring instruments, developed long term monitoring (also for IEQ controlling) tools as well as planning and evaluation tools and concepts supporting the implementation, the quality assurance and success control of the energy retrofit measures.

EU Policy News

EP voted for ambitious F-Gas phase-down

Members of the European Parliament voted on 13 March in favour of the new F-gas Regulation updating the ineffective 2006 Regulation allowing industry significant exemptions. The new Regulation features a comprehensive set of effective measures providing real incentive for a market transition to climate-friendly alternatives.
The ambitious new Regulation will reduce F-gas emissions by two-thirds of today's levels by 2030 and ban the use of F-gases in some new equipment where viable climate-friendly alternatives are readily available. The main novelty and driver for moving towards climate-friendly technologies is the introduction of a phase-down measure which from 2015 will limit the total amount of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) sold in the EU and reduce their quantities to one-fifth of today's sales by 2030. This measure is accompanied by a number of new restrictions on the use and sale of F-gases in equipment. These ambitious measures will build on and benefit from the successful phase-out of ozone-depleting substances which was achieved in the EU 10 years ahead of the internationally agreed schedule.

Study and EC non-paper on Ecodesign and Energy labelling review - REHVA position taken into account

First findings and recommendations as well as a EC non-paper on the proposed new Energy label design are available in the website dedicated for the review of the Energy labelling and the Ecodesign directives. REHVA submitted a position paper last year within the review process and welcomes the fact that the report deals with all major recommendations of the REHVA position.
Findings of the study and the non-paper were presented at a final stakeholder meeting 18- 19 February 2014. Main recommendations of the study are following:
-Exploring the possibility of a system approach and approaches of package label (e.g. installer labels" as in ENER lot 1 for space heaters)
-Considering non-energy aspects where appropriate 
-Increased level of ambition of Implementing Regulations and to extend Energy Labelling to B2B products 
-Introduction of an EU wide Primary Energy Factor (to allow for comparison amongst products)
-Improvement of market surveillance 
-To avoid further expansion of the scope due to limited resources

eceee launched new FAQ pages on EPBD

eceee launched a set of new pages on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, (EPBD). The new pages represent the first step in providing new and updated information helping all stakeholders to navigate the complex EPBD. A totally revised Steering through the Maze Guide on Nearly Zero Energy Buildings is in the planning as well. The new pages complement eceee's FAQ pages and Steering through the Maze guide on the Energy Efficiency Directive, published in December. Source: eceee