EU probe to ‘close data gaps’ on building energy use
In a bid to improve energy efficiency, a project backed by the European Commission will build an EU-wide public database on the energy consumption of EU buildings.
Known as ExcEED, the €750,000 scheme will be led by the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC), who will co-ordinate the work of Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE) and businesses Wattics, 3E and Hoval.
ExcEED, is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme, and has been launched just weeks before the Commission is due to unveil its proposed review of the EU directives on Energy Efficiency (EED) and Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD).
The commission admitted in a leaked draft of the EBPD proposal that sourcing reliable figures for building energy use was “challenging”.
The commission said that the data gap could be filled in part by pulling information from the energy performance certificates provided to consumers looking to buy or rent a property in a building.
The ExcEED project aims to use these certificates – as well as national reports and other research projects – to source the most recent figures on building energy performance.
This data will be used by the institutions behind the scheme to build indicators such as the energy used annually for heating and cooling, indoor air temperature and photovoltaic energy output.
ExcEED also plans to conduct surveys with building occupants to assess how effective the energy they have used has been in keeping them comfortably warm and ensuring good conditions indoors.
The information on the database will be publicly available, with the first version due to come out in 2018.
