Energy Performance Certificates
Energy Performance Certificates are crucial instruments to bring transparency and accountability into the energy performance of buildings. They are one of the central elements of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). EPCs were introduced in an earlier version of the EPBD (Directive 2002/91/EC). The key function of EPC is to provide information about building energy use, and what is important for people before they buy or rent it. EPCs also include cost-effective recommendations for energy performance improvements, in some cases also available financial instruments and rate the building according to energy classes.?
EPC class or building energy efficiency class is used to reflect the energy consumption of buildings and enable easier comparison between them. When EPCs were introduced, there were based on a common and easily identifiable A-G scale. However, there is still not complete harmonisation, the parameters for allocating buildings to particular EPC classes continue to be defined nationally, and the distribution of buildings across the A-G scale varies considerably between Member States [x]. Most of the Member States still use the A-G label. Energy Class A stands for low energy consumption, and G stands for high. Some Member States use a different number of classes but also introduce subclasses Based on the data that EPCs include, Member States established databases that comprise all the data for buildings that have EPCs. To monitor and ensure the EPC quality, as well as data accuracy, the EPC quality controls were also implemented. These quality controls and definitions of “inaccurate EPCs” vary across countries? [х].
The upcoming EPBD recast recognises the importance of harmonisation of EPC classes to ensure better comparability. By 2025, the goal is that all EPCs would have to be based on a harmonised scale of energy performance classes. This measure will help to compare the renovation efforts across the EU. The rescaling will make EPC result in the situation that at least 15% of buildings will have class G, while the remaining ones will be evenly distributed between B-F classes. The rescaled classes will also bring more ambitious renovation goals for residential and non-residential buildings, as well as public and non-public [x]. Rescaling is not the only aspect of reforming EPCs, the EU institutions have different visions on the indicators that should be mandatory included in the EPC. Additionally, there were proposals to widen the recommendation section of the EPCs to include more financial and technical support. Trigger points state the conditions under which EPCs should be issued, in the coming recast, the number of those is expected to be increased. The EPC validity is also a point of discussion, the position of the Council is to keep it 10 years for all buildings, while the Parliament agrees with the Commission’s proposal to reduce it to 5 years for the worst-performing buildings[x].?
EPCs integration with renovation passports is another proposal that offers a lot of opportunities to develop a tailored roadmap that would provide advice to improve building energy performance. However, there are also differences between the on-site visit and inspection requirements and the different qualification requirements of EPC assessors. This leads to the lack of coherence as well as uneven quality and reliability of EPCs across the EU Member States, still represents a challenge for enabling all the possible EPC benefits, such as better policy planning and targeting, making well-informed investment decisions and progress monitoring of the effort to decarbonise building stock [x].
领英推荐
Bibliography