In order to reduce the energy use of buildings, policy makers impose stringent requirements with regard to energy performance of new buildings and renovated buildings, and the use of renewable resources. Most compliance checks and labelling of the energy performances of buildings are done in the design phase by calculating the theoretical energy use. But, despite regulation and policy enforcements, monitoring of actual energy performances reveals in many cases a significant gap with theoretically designed targets. The currently observed performance gap, in combination with the increasing integration of innovative systems such as intelligent elements, low energy technologies, active solar systems, … accentuate the need to develop reliable methods and procedures that can be applied on site to assess the actual performance of buildings.

This request for onsite quality assessment is also clearly visible in several initiatives taken in different countries. Current assessment methods, however, often focus only on limited aspects, such as the building air tightness, or the quality of ventilation systems, while overall methods based on in-situ measured data remain sparse. A better prediction, characterization and quality assurance of the actual building energy performance is essential to realise the world wide intended energy reduction in building communities and systems. Quantifying the actual performance of buildings can only be effectively realised by optimized in-situ measurements combined with dynamic data analysis techniques.
The IEA EBC Annex 71-project on ‘Building Energy Performance Assessment Based on In-Situ Measurements’ aims to make the step towards monitoring in-use buildings to obtain reliable quality checks of daily building construction practice to guarantee that designed performances are obtained on site.

This workshop focused on the development of methods for the assessment and assurance of energy consumption in the building sector and potential applications in the context of the regulatory assessment of the energy performance of new buildings.

The workshop was organised by the DYNASTEE platform (www.dynastee.info), facilitated by INIVE (www.inive.org), following the IEA Annex 71 4th international expert meeting in Brussels.

The seminar was open to all professionals interested in quality assurance of the actual building energy performance.

Further information on the programme is available in the flyer enclosed (see further below).