Abstract
Implemented by the European EPB directives, the Energy Performance Certification has been designed by authorities to “provide clear information about the energy performance of a building”. Studies led in Wallonia show however that official results are often too distant from reality and difficult to understand for the lay person. This paper focuses on the comparison between two certified old urban brick single-family houses in the Walloon residential stock: a highly efficiently renovated “exemplary building”, described in detail, versus an inefficient and poorly described second house. After presentation of the case studies, this paper will investigate the uncertainties that surround the description of the “energy systems” and the standardized calculation method. This research explores the possibilities of elevating the confidence in the certification results by adding information on the description of the envelope and systems, by re-integrating the human factor in the equations (through a questionnaire collecting by interview the dwellers’ energy-related behaviours and practices), and by using dynamic simulations. The comparison of the results to the official standardised results indicates that additional data on the household’s composition, practices and energy-related behaviours are as much needed as a more accurate description of the energy system, which is penalized by default values and a severe standardisation of the calculation method.
Highlights
The EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) has been designed by authorities to “provide clear information about the energy performance of a building”, in order to influence the real-estate market by bringing the general public to integrate energy into their dwelling decision-making processes, promote energy performance improvements and help build up comprehensive benchmarking databases, fundamental for shaping strategies on a local or regional level.The certification procedure has been imposed by the 2002/91/CE [1] and 2010/31/UE [2] European Directives, and the definition of the calculation method was left to the member states
This leads to the use of a tight and strict protocol in the certification procedure that regulates the acceptable proofs of performance, and delivers many default values to fill the holes
- Describe, as accurately as possible, those two houses and their energy systems; - Interview their owners in order to gain additional data on the house, their data of real energy consumption, their habits and behaviors that are believed to be needed in order to de-standardize the calculation method;
Summary
The certification procedure has been imposed by the 2002/91/CE [1] and 2010/31/UE [2] European Directives, and the definition of the calculation method was left to the member states (or regions, in the case of Belgium). The Walloon regulatory calculation method is described in [3] and had to be adapted in its Annex D [4] for the assessment of existing residential buildings. The EPC regulatory calculation method is standardized in the honorable and understandable objective to ease the comparison between buildings. This leads to the use of a tight and strict protocol in the certification procedure that regulates the acceptable proofs of performance, and delivers many default values to fill the holes.
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