Having the right set of
data when designing or
renovating a building can
be the decisive variable
for the success of the project.
Easy-toaccess,
transparent and trust-worthy
data is indeed useful for a range of
actors. For the building manager, to
ensure that a building is operated in
the most energy effi cient way possible,
respecting the original design. For
the building designers, to understand
the actual performance of buildings
and their technologies once they are
operational.
For the decision makers in the building
sector, who require high-quality data in
order to allocate resources to the most
cost-effi cient option. Last but not least,
different other stakeholder groups,
such as financial institutions, require
information that can support informed
decisions (i.e. green loans).
THE DATA GAPS
Despite the importance of having
solid and transparent information, the
building sector still has to fill many data
gaps. For example, the many projects
on energy effi cient buildings financed
every year by the European Union often
include demo cases used to prove
the effectiveness of new technology
solutions or designs. However, the
output data is not centrally collected.
Most of the time, the information is lost once the project is closed, hindering
dissemination of good practices or
lessons learnt, preventing feedback
into policy processes and leading to
double efforts when a new project is
launched.
When designing buildings,
transitioning from theory to practice
is more difficult than expected: the
design is often based on simulations,
and when the building is finally
operational, there is very little feedback
on the theoretical principles.
This leads to the application of
techniques and approaches that,
despite being theoretically sound,
they are also repeatedly badly
implemented, due to lack of
constructive feedback.
Even the central source of information
on the energy performance of the EU
building stock, the Energy Performance
Certifi cates (EPCs), are not always
reliable, because some European
countries still lack central databases,
and where they have them, these are
not necessarily publicly accessible. To
add on that, citizens have justifi able
privacy concerns. Data should be
collected and stored while respecting
EU data protection requirements.
FILLING THE GAPS...
When it comes to solutions, big steps
ahead are being made by several
initiatives. One is the Buildings
Observatory, launched end of 2016 by
the European Commission in an effort to
mirror the state of the European building
stock. Another interesting initiative is the
ExcEED project, whose aim is to create
a European database for measured and
qualitative data on beyond the state-of-the-art buildings and districts.
... WITH A BUILDING PERFORMANCE MONITORING PLATFORM...
The EU Building Stock Observatory
monitors the energy performance of
buildings across Europe. It assesses
improvements in the energy effi ciency
of buildings and impacts on the actual
energy consumption of the building
sector. The Observatory tracks many different aspects including energy
effi ciency levels in buildings at country
and EU level, financing possibilities
for renovation and energy poverty
levels across the EU. The Buildings
Observatory managed to gather data
from various sources, like EU projects,
national statistics, EPC databases,
cities' sustainable energy action plans,
and industry data. With the multiple
sources implemented, the Building
Stock Observatory allows for a neutral
point of view on data gathering
reducing the risk of biased data or
false information.
...AND A EUROPEAN PROJECT WITH A KNOWLEDGE DATABASE
While the Buildings Observatory
contains data on a wide range
of buildings, the Exceed project
focuses on a specific category:
newly constructed buildings. The
"European Energy Efficient building
district Database" promises to
establish a robust and durable return
of knowledge mechanism collecting
actual energy performance data.
ExcEED provides information to
different players, bringing added
value in different fields. For example,
designers can test their work with
regards to a possible performance gap,
energy managers can have a better
overview on the overall building and its
energy efficiency, while policy makers
can better guide their work with geolocalised
information.
The database will gather and categorise
diverse data coming from different
sources, including building monitoring
systems, projects, building managers,
public authorities, other European
databases. The innovation lies in the
fact that part of the information will be
gathered from Indoor Environmental
Quality (IEQ) surveys, developed by the
projects itself to integrate the point of
view of the occupants.
THE STEPS FORWARD
The initiatives named above show
that the EU is taking steps in the right
direction. At the same time, the gaps in
the data collection process prevent a
smoother and faster transition to more
effi cient buildings, because of biased,
incomplete or unavailable data.
Other steps forward are therefore
needed. Further technical progress in
the fi eld of ICT is extremely helpful.
Publicly accessible central databases
to collect information and redistribute
statistical data should be made available.
The aggregated data should also be
anonymous, in order to comply with the
EU data protection requirements.
To provide much needed data and help
increase transparency on the use of
public funding, these central databases
should be also filled with information
coming from Energy Performance
Certificates and all publicly funded
projects. To do so, EU legislation
should require every Member State
to establish a national database for
registering EPCs.
With a smoother and easier process
of data collection, coming from the
establishment of central, public
and reliable databases, the projects
dedicated to making the building
stock in the EU more efficient could
accelerate and therefore proliferate.
In particular, the creation of a publicly
available EU database collating
anonymised national data would help
the European Union to better assess
the situation of the building stock and
take proper action to reach its local and
global energy climate targets.