Newsletter Issue 2/2015

It is our great pleasure to invite you to the REHVA Annual Meeting and the 9th Conference on Advanced HVAC and Natural Gas Technologies which takes place this spring in one of the Baltic States – Riga, Latvia on 6-9 May 2015. Be present and enjoy a wonderful springtime in Latvia!  The conference flyer is available online. To register, please visit www.hvacriga2015.eu.

News from REHVA at the ASHRAE Winter meeting in Chicago, United States

• AASA meeting in Chicago
• REHVA cocktail at the ASHRAE 2015 winter meeting
• REHVA refreshed cooperation with our MoU partners
• Very successful REHVA seminar during the ASHRAE Winter Conference 2015
• ASHRAE recognizes outstanding industry achievements 

Commission launched a strategy of European Energy Union

On 25th February, the European Commission has adopted its strategy for a European Energy Union, alongside a 15-point action plan. Buildings energy efficiency is a key pillar of the Energy Union targeted by support for investments in energy refurbishment & by research and innovation actions in the field. With this strategy, the European Commission delivers on a top priority set out in President Juncker's political guidelines. Click here for more information.

A heating and cooling strategy for Europe - High level EU policy conference on Heating and cooling, 26-27 February, Brussels

The European Commission organised a high level conference about the heating and cooling sector covering recent technical, financial and policy aspects and challenges Europe is facing in this area. DG Energy Director General, Dominique Ristori announced that the Commission will elaborate a new heating and cooling strategy for Europe in the coming months. The conference served as the first forum to discuss stakeholder interests for the strategy. The presentations of the 2-days event are available here. 

EU certification scheme for the energy performance of non-residential buildings

As announced by Paul Hodson at the latest REHVA Supporters Seminar in October 2014, the European Commission works on the setting-up of a voluntary common EU certification scheme for non-residential buildings. The Commission recently published a Market study for a voluntary common European Union certification scheme for the energy performance of non-residential buildings. The study gives an overview of existing voluntary schemes and analyses the demand for a European wide voluntary scheme. The main findings determining the next steps are: 

• The scheme will allow a consistent comparison between non-residential buildings across the EU
• It will contribute to raising the ambition for building certification in some Member States.
• It will be built on CEN standards and be applied both for public & private buildings (new & existing).
• The voluntary EU scheme should use a comparative label design, and a third party should be responsible for its technical development.

Have your say on the EPBD standards under revision! – deadline extended to 7 April 2015

REHVA has launched an internal commenting process in February 2015 of the EPBD standards currently under revision by CEN. The aim is to collect and submit comments on the draft standards as a joint REHVA comment form. REHVA Supporters and Members are invited to send their opinion until 7 April 2015.  

For more information, contact Anita Derjanecz, REHVA Policy and Project Officer (ad(at)rehva.eu)

neZEH organises a project conference in Nice on 25 June 2015 linked to the  Innovative City Convention 2015 event. The whole-day conference targets representatives of the tourism sector, regional and local policy makers and other stakeholders involved in the sustainable tourism sector.

The conference will highlight case studies of high energy performing hotels and report about the first achievements concerning the neZEH pilot hotels. 14 pilot hotels were selected to receive technical assistance from the project to plan their deep energy retrofit investments. 

More information and registration are available in the event website.

REHVA members and other associations team up to develop a European Training and Qualification Platform on nZEB design and construction. The platform addresses technical experts, architects and facility managers represented by REHVA, the Architects' Council of Europe (ACE-CAE) and Housing Europe. PROF-TRAC will map the skill gaps of professionals needed for nZEB, train trainers from REHVA and ACE members to upgrade their national training programmes according the PROF-TRAC scheme. The project will set up an online platform to exchange knowledge and provide a repository of training materials for the continuous professional development for the sector. 12 REHVA Member Associations are involved so far in the initiative as project partner or are interested to join the scheme at a later stage. The Platform will be open for every REHVA Member Associations to join. Download the executive summary of PROF-TRAC for more information.

The overall aim of the report is to provide an overview of the regulatory framework for IAQ, thermal comfort and daylight, and to highlight the importance of having appropriate requirements for thermal comfort, ventilation and daylight conditions. The report provides concluding recommendations for further policy development relevant for indoor climate.

The report states that while indoor climate is mentioned in the EPBD, the importance of indoor air quality, thermal comfort and daylight has to be strengthened in a future recast. These aspects could be integrated in the Energy Performance Certification process as relevant information of the actual living conditions in the building. The co-benefits of thermal comfort and a healthy indoor environment should be taken into account when assessing the macroeconomic impact of energy renovation measures (e.g. reduction of health service costs). Such requirements should also be reflected in national renovation strategies as developed under articles 4 and 5 of the Energy Efficiency Directive. Download the report here.