Urgent need for a third EU Mandate to CEN to be able to upgrade the current set of EPB standards

A 3rd Mandate from EU to CEN [1] for upgrading the set of EPB standards and developing a supporting open source EPB software tool is essential for a successful implementation of the revised EPBD in the EU Member States, specifically regarding the important milestones that shall be achieved by 2030. The CEN/ISO Roadmap [2] that has been cooperatively developed and published by the relevant CEN and ISO technical committees (CEN/TC 371 et al, and ISO/TC 163 & 205) describes the details of the work to be done. Annex I of the EPBD lists eight key EPB standards. However, for an all-encompassing and coherent EPB assessment, the total set of EPB standards has to be made up-to-date. The roadmap responds to the changes and new elements in the EPBD, as well as to the results from the recently organized systematic review of the whole set. One of the main conclusions was the need for an overall EPB software tool. But also, that complementary to the coherent and balanced technical description of all the physics, it is important to keep the national choices (policy, climate, building use, etc.), but rationalized, clarified and brought in line with the revised EPBD.

Why do we need this 3rd Mandate? The work to be done is quite substantial and -consequently- sufficient resources are needed to organize a coherent workforce of experts covering and connecting the various domains and to organize feedback from the national regulators and other stakeholders. The two earlier Mandates proved that this is the only way to guarantee the overall quality, consistency and usability.

The parallel development of an open source overall EPB software kernel is necessary to check, and demonstrate that all EPB-standards are software ready and that all interactions between the various calculation modules are unambiguously described. In short; to produce the overall energy performance and all output data mentioned in EPBD article 19 and Annex V. Equally important is interoperability and connectivity with data models and databases (products, EPCs, etc.) and to enable interfacing with the whole-life-cycle GHG assessment.

Because the EPB-kernel is intended to be open source, it will be available for all EPB software providers in the EU Member States and beyond. A long-term plan for maintenance and updating will be an intrinsic element in the workplan.

It will allow the EPB software providers to build their own user-interface and to include the typical national choices based on the national / regional building regulations, climate and building traditions. Also offering services such as links with existing product databases to make the gathering of input data for the user efficient and user-friendly.

Food for thought: it is noted that currently each of the 27+4 EU and EFTA Member States has developed and has to maintain and keep up-to-date their own national software tool, that is typically for 70-90% based on the current set of EPB standards. An investment in the common EPB software kernel under a 3rd Mandate is a very cost-effective EU investment compared with the current situation.

More and more experts involved in building regulations expressed interest in such a coordinated effort. But to achieve this, the message needs to be shared with the national and regional regulators. They need to be convinced and subsequently formally convey the message to the EC level.

This REHVA Journal issue is focusing on IEQ. This is very relevant in relation to the EPBD implementation, the EPBD mentions IEQ in 7 articles and 4 Annexes. The CEN and ISO community already started to work on this, given the new ground that has to be explored to address the EPBD properly. Such preliminary work is also important as the outcome is relevant when upgrading the total set of EPB standards under the 3rd Mandate.

The article, “EPBD Compared to the REHVA Principles for 2050 Ready Buildings” (pages 59-61) by REHVA vice president Johann Zirngibl, highlights REHVA’s principles on formulating guidance on several EPBD articles. In this context several articles are shortly addressed: Article 3 on national building renovation plans; Article 4 on adoption of a methodology for calculating the energy performance of buildings; Article 9 on minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and Article 11 on zero-emission building (ZEB).