A High Level Policy Conference Workshop was organised by REHVA in cooperation with EHPA, EVIA and EPEE during EU Sustainable Energy Week 2015 on June 17 in Brussels.

More than 100 experts from a range of backgrounds attended the seminar. Different ideas were discussed on how to use and deploy innovative building technologies to improve the energy efficiency of the European building stock. Paula Rey, Buildings Team Leader from DG Energy made a review of the EPBD and EU policies for the improvement of buildings energy efficiency. Frank Hovorka REHVA’s vice-president discussed about the importance of indoor environmental quality and energy efficient buildings two issues that should be tackled at the same time. Recently, the EU has strongly focused on energy efficient buildings - and has thus not granted less attention to indoor air quality. However, this topic plays a major role: the majority of our lifetime is spent indoors and the indoor environment has not only a major impact on our health but also on our productivity at work. With the Energy Efficiency Directive, Ecodesign and the recast EPBD, the way has been paved for the improvement of energy efficiency. We now need the same kind of strong signals in terms of indoor air quality and look forward to supporting policymakers in finding the best solutions to achieve this.

Torben Funder-Kristensen from EPEE presented a good case study on District Heating connectivity. He demonstrated how supermarkets can play a significant role in smart and integrated energy systems. The use of the smart grid will improve energy efficiency.

The chair of the industrial and commercial heat pumps working group Mr. Eric Delforge from EHPA presented another case study on heat pumps in the energy retrofit of the Hotel & school at Saint Moritz Lake. He demonstrated with this case study the merits of heat pump system for environment and the yearly savings for the energy bill.

The importance for demand controlled and heat recovery ventilation in high performance buildings were presented by Evia Technical Director, Claus Händel. He mentioned several studies that pointed out that more energy efficient ventilation systems can reduce the energy consumption of buildings. He suggested that in the Revision of EPBD the following aspects shall be considered: Net Energy Need for ventilation and the necessity to include an Indicator for IAQ in the energy certificate.

The important role of cities and regions in the transition to high energy performance buildings were presented by Christiane Egger from FEDARENE. She presented the “carrots, sticks and tambourines” approach that has successfully worked to stimulate support NZEB market development in the Region of Upper Austria.

The event ended with a panel discussion and questions from the audience moderated by Sonja van Renssen from Energypost.

The presentations are available online now!