Newsletter Issue 3/2014

May 2014

REHVA Community News

REHVA General Assembly

The 58th REHVA General Assembly was held on Tuesday 29 April 2014 in Düsseldorf, Germany. It gathered nearly 110 participants from 25 European countries. After a welcoming address by the host, VDI Director, Ralph Appel from Germany, Prof Karel Kabele opened the General Assembly.

In the later afternoon, Prof. Karel Kabele presented the 2013 annual report. At the end of the Assembly was the election of two REHVA board Members. Prof. Stefano Corgnati was unanimously reelected. Egils Dzelzitis from Latvia was also unanimously elected. The meeting ended with the introduction of the newest REHVA Member, the Moldavian Association of Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning engineers, AIIRM.

The new REHVA Board now consists of President Karel Kabele (STP, Czech Republic) and the following Vice-Presidents: Stefano P. Corgnati (AiCARR, Italy) [new Treasurerl], Ioan Silviu Dobosi (AIIR, Romania), Manuel Gameiro da Silva (Ordem dos Engenheiros, Portugal), Frank Hovorka (AICVF, France), Jarek Kurnitski (EKVU, Estonia) and Egils Dzelzitis (AHGWTEL/LATVAC, Latvia).

REHVA Awards

On the occasion of the Annual Meeting 2014, the following members of REHVA member associations received a REHVA Award: 

• Prof. Wim Zeiler (TVVL – The Netherlands) was recognized for his outstanding achievements in science and for his contributions to improve energy efficiency and the indoor environment of buildings
• Derrick Braham (CIBSE – United Kingdom) was recognized for his outstanding achievements in technology and for his contributions to improve energy efficiency and the indoor environment of buildings.
• Michal Krajčík (SSTP – Slovakia) and Angela Simone (DANVAK – Denmark) received a REHVA Young Scientist Award.

REHVA Student Competition

Under the same leadership as he did last year in Prague, Prof Robert Gavriliuc chaired this competition. There were nine entries, from Italy and Romania the presentation was done by a team of two persons. The jury had a very difficult task to come to the winner.

After deliberation, the winners were Nicolae Bajenaru and Andrei Ene from Romania. The next day during the Conference, they gave an oral presentation of their work on "an experimental and numerical study on achieving a high indoor environmental quality in a classroom". The Romanian team became a cheque of 500 €, a certificate and the Trophy/Challenge cup for their university.

REHVA’s president thanked all contributors and the members of the jury for their excellent work.

REHVA Annual Conference

The REHVA Annual Conference focused on "Energy efficient, smart and healthy buildings". This technical conference took place on April 30th at the Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf Airport. The main topics of this conference were ventilation, indoor-air quality, cooling load and building automation. VDI-GBG organized an excellent programme, which offered researchers, industry, building owners, end-users, consultants, engineers, architects and policy makers a platform for the exchange of knowledge and innovative technical solutions. All the presentations are available online.

REHVA signed Memorandum of Understanding with SAREK 

The purpose of this act is to strengthen the relationship between Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning Associations (REHVA) and Society of Air-conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea (SAREK) and to promote substantial and tangible actions to increase the co-operation between the two associations.

SAREK, established in 1971, represents with about 7,000 experts in the area of air-conditioning and refrigerating engineering as well as the area of building and plant facilities engineering. 

MoU signing ceremony was held at the occasion of the 7th Asian Conference on Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (ACRA 2014) on 21 May 2014 in the presence of REHVA and SAREK presidents and members of the SAREK Board. During the conference, attended by more than 200 experts from Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, presented prof. Kabele, REHVA president in a special section lecture on the topic Energy and Ecology - Indoor Environment and Energy Efficient Buildings, focused on issues related to reduction the energy performance of buildings in terms of the quality of the indoor environment and presented recent REHVA Guidebooks and activities.

REHVA Seminar in Light and Building

This year during the exhibition, REHVA organized in collaboration with VDI a seminar on "Greater energy efficiency with automated buildings" on Monday March 31 in Messe Frankfurt. Jan Aufderheijde, the REHVA Secretary General, welcomed all the seminar participants. The lectures were translated simultaneously into German / English. All the presentations are available online.

REHVA Journal issues

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

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).
The September issue of the REHVA Journal (5/2014) will focus on Heat Pumps and renovations –The editor of this issue is Olli Seppänen (oseppanen@rehva.eu)

EU Policy News

Building Renovation Strategies. From Directive to Delivery

BPIE, the state of Baden-Württemberg and the German Institute for Energy and Environment (IFEU) organized an event on May 16 presenting studies and analysis conducted about Member States’ effort to deliver ambitious renovation strategies. The workshop attracted a surprisingly big audience, juts 2 weeks after the reporting deadline by which Member Stated were supposed to submit their National Renovation Roadmaps to the Commission. Oliver Rapf (BPIE) presented the very first overview about the submitted national renovation roadmaps. Only 11 countries out of 28 submitted their roadmap, many of the submitted ones are actually not complying with the related Article 4 of the Energy Efficiency Directive. Most strategies lack ambition or any commitment to new policies addressing building renovation. A detailed analysis will be prepared and published by BPIE by September 2014.

During the event, notable national and regional examples from Baden-Württemberg, France, Czech Republic and Brussels Region were highlighted, followed by a panel discussion. Find out more about the frontrunner national renovation strategies in the presentations.

European Parliament stands strong on Energy Efficiency:

Over 100 MEPs pledge to STOP Energy Waste in Buildings in their 2014-2019 mandate

The Renovate Europe Manifesto for the 2014 Elections has received over 100 signatures from sitting and candidate MEPs, who have pledged to keep Energy Efficiency in Buildings high on the political agenda if re-elected in the next legislative term. Among these signatures are MEPs from 19 different European countries, from all 5 main European political parties as well as 5 EP Vice-Presidents. The Renovate Europe Manifesto urges MEPs to undertake the following actions if elected for the next mandate:

- Urge their National government to implement an ambitious national renovation strategy
- Hold the relevant commissioners and commission service to account on the importance of taking action for Buildings renovation.
- Establish continuous dialogue with and support for local authorities in their efforts to Renovate the EU building stock
- Recall that Energy Efficiency  buildings renovation requires high prioritisation at political and legislative levels
- Help to disseminate success stories about ambitious Energy renovations

Find out which MEPs signed the Manifesto at www.renovate-europe.eu/manifesto
Source: Renovate-Europe

EU Project News

iSERV results and further exploitation discussed at REHVA Annual Meeting 2014

Close to the project end iSERVcmb was presented to REHVA Members and Supporters during the REHVA Annual Meeting and Conference. Project coordinator Ian Knight presented some final results of the H.E.R.O monitoring and benchmarking tool, including HVAC system benchmarks from different EU countries. EU benchmarks were also published in a paper on Power Demands of Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning components in EU Buildings by Ian Knight in the latest REHVA Journal issue disseminated also during the conference.

The advantages and possible further use of the developed monitoring tool were also discussed in the Task Force Workshop "Ventilation and AC inspections in Cold Climate countries" organized during the Annual Meeting. The presentation of experts from Nordic countries showed that there is a clear need for further practical guidance for member states - including the ones considered as more advanced in this field, which have already implemented EBPD regulation on the monitoring of AC systems. In the following REHVA Technical Research Committee it was agreed that the REHVA AC Inspection Task Force will include instructions and guidance about the monitoring of AC system based on iSERV in its upcoming AC inspections Guidebook.

NEZEH will be presented during EUSEW, Brussels, 23 June 2014

NEZEH partner NECSTour will organize a workshop on "Climate Change Mitigation through Tourism Energy Efficiency" the 23rd of June in Brussels under the framework of the European Sustainable Energy Week(EUSEW). The workshop aims at identifying and analyzing showcases on climate change mitigation through the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the tourism sector, and at debating on how these pilot cases can be widely transferred and replicated within Europe. The NEZEH approach and current status is part of the agenda: Fostering competiveness and sustainability of hotels through nearly Zero Energy strategies. The NEZEH project will be presented during the event by the host NECSTour and the project coordinator Technical University of Crete. Register here to the event.

First outcomes of the NEZEH project presented at the REHVA Annual Conference

First outcomes of the Nearly Zero Energy Hotels Project were presented by REHVA vice-president Stefano P. Corgnati in the REHVA Annual Conference on 30 April 2014 in Düsseldorf. REHVA was in charge for defining initial criteria of an nZEB hotel, taking into account both the EU regulation on NZEB and the special features and needs of hotel buildings and the hospitality sector. Based on these requirements hotels are selected in each partner country to become pilot case of the project and so refurbishment plans and feasibility studies of each selected hotel will be developed by end of the project. Stefano P. Corgnati presented also an existing NZEB hotel example, Stadthalle Boutique Hotel Vienna, which is the first net zero energy hotel in Europe. The case study was also published in the latest REHVA Journal issue disseminated at the Conference. 
You can find more information about the NEZEH project in the project website

Publications

New EU Commission guidance on the financing of energy renovation

The European Commission (DG Energy) published in February a technical guide on the use of European Structural and Investment Funds for building renovation: Financing the energy renovation of buildings with Cohesion Policy funding.
It includes a list of good practice approaches and case studies and explores the different financing mechanisms managing authorities can use to support sustainable energy projects within an operational programme.  Download the guidance document - Source: BPIE

International Events

FinnBuild - a showcase for the Finnish construction industry

The Finland’s largest building and building services trade fair, FinnBuild 2014, will be held at Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo & Convention Centre, on 1-3 October 2014. FinnBuild presents the best expertise, products, services and solutions for construction. 
REHVA will organize with FINVAC a seminar on Thursday on 2 October on "HVAC equipment and systems in nearly zero energy buildings" - 13.00-16.30
The seminar is free to all visitors. The speakers are prominent European and Finnish experts.
More information at www.finnbuild.fi

The international conference on Advanced HVAC & Natural Gas Technology will take place in Riga on 6-8 May. The Radisson BLU Hotel Latvija Conference Centre will host of this event. It is the region’s largest and most modern Conference and Event Centre.

Abstract (4000 characters including spaces) should be submitted to www.hvacriga2015.eu by 1 September 2014. Please view the topics online at www.hvacriga2015.eu. Contact person: Mrs Signe Barbaniska at signe.barbaniska(at)btgroup.lv 

Upcoming HVAC events  

EUSEW 2014, Brussels, Belgium, 23-27 June 2014
More information
EUSEW 2014 will take place from 23-28 June in Brussels. The High level Policy Conference includes some 30 sessions on renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean transport. Sessions are organised both by Commission services, and by external stakeholders (industry associations, networks, NGOs, media). Register here. Registration is open until 8 June !

13th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate
July 7-12, 2014, University of Hong Kong
More information

35th AIVC Conference – 4th TightVent Conference – 2nd Venticool Conference
24-25 September 2014, Poznań, Polan
More information 

Chillventa 2014
14-16 October 2014, Nuremberg, Germany
More information

RoomVent 2014
19-22 October 2014, Sao Paulo, Brazil
More information

CCHVAC conference
27-31 October 2014, Tianjin, China

e-nova 2014 congress
13-14 November 2014, Pinkafeld, Austria
More information

45th HVAC&R International Congress
3-5 December 2014, Belgrade, Serbia
More information

For more HVAC events please check the REHVA Events Calendar on www.rehva.eu and also www.buildup.eu