The 2nd generation EPB standards ready for enquiry

JaapHogeling

Editor-in-Chief

This CEN project was announced in the first REHVA Journal issue of 2011. Support of the EU-Commission under Mandate 480 made it possible to develop this coherent set of EPB standards. This development took place under the overall coordination of CENTC371 “Program Committee on EPBD” and the collective of the different team leaders (CTL) coordinating and working with the 5 other CEN/TC’s involved. The CTL worked also in good coordination with the Liaison Committee of the EU Member States. The purpose of this close cooperation with the MS’s is obvious. These CEN EPB standards are expected to be referenced by national legislation. This referencing will secure a proper implementation of the EPBD (Energy Performance Buildings Directive) on national level.

The overarching standard (OAS) FprEN15603:2014 ‘Energy Performance of Buildings – Overarching standard EPB’ was the first to go on enquiry and formal vote. CENTC371 decided to publish this premature OAS to make it available as widely as possible but with the clear intention to revise it during 2015.

Due to a lot of non-responsive CEN members and understandable formal opposition from 3 CEN members it didn’t pass the formal vote. CENTC371 decided as intended before, to update the OAS during 2015 but also to launch a new enquiry before a next formal vote. This procedure will allow CENTC371 to include all necessary changes based on the feedback of the enquiry of the total set of CEN and CEN-ISO EPB standards.

Ongoing discussions on how to facilitate the Voluntary Certification Scheme for Non-residential Buildings or issues raised by discussion on Primary Energy Factors may also influence the final content of the OAS.

This first issue of the REHVA Journal 2015 includes 7 articles about the current set of EPB standards published for enquiry. Where possible references are given to the draft Technical Reports connected to these prEN’s. As these Technical Reports are not official published yet, they can only be accessed through the CEN livelink system. This means that the National Standards Bodies can assist you to receive these drafts. The professional aimed to use these EPB standards in practise are encouraged to react on the public enquiry of these EPB standards and by doing so make use of the TR’s related to these standards. Most, not to say all, of the informative content of the EPB standards is included in the TR. This means that information regarding the background, justification of assumptions and verification by example calculation can only be found in these TR’s. They are essential to consult if one wants to participate in the enquiry. Where standards include calculations, excel files have been developed to demonstrate that the given calculations work, these excel files can also be accessed via the CEN livelink system.

The enquiry period used to be 5 months but is recently restricted to 3 months. This makes action on the draft standards (prEN’s) a more urgent matter. Some enquiries will close by the beginning of March 2015!

Access to the prEN’s and other information can be granted by your national standard body. Where possible your REHVA contacts may assist you.