2. Achieving Greener Building Services in Practice for Europe
Submitting Institution
Cardiff UniversityUnit of Assessment
Architecture, Built Environment and PlanningSummary Impact Type
TechnologicalResearch Subject Area(s)
Mathematical Sciences: Statistics
Built Environment and Design: Architecture, Building
Summary of the impact
The work described here has impacted on European policy and standards
concerning energy efficiency in Building Services.
The impact arises from two Welsh School of Architecture led and European
Commission funded projects, HARMONAC (focussed on inspection of
air-conditioning systems) and iSERV (focussed on automatic system
monitoring and feedback). These pan-European projects demonstrate achieved
energy savings of up to 33% of total building electricity use in
individual buildings, and potential savings up to €60Bn. These projects
demonstrably impacted the recast European Energy Performance of Buildings
Directive (EPBD) and the revision of EU Standards (European Committee for
Standardisation (CEN)).
Underpinning research
The underpinning research described has occurred since 2000. The research
produced the following insights specific to the impact claimed here:
Between 2000 and 2002, a research project funded by the Building Research
Establishment (BRE), Toshiba Carrier and the National Grid Transco led by
Professor Ian Knight of the Welsh School of Architecture (1987 to present)
undertook detailed monitoring of air-conditioning (AC) system energy use
in 32 UK Office Buildings. The published results from this empirical work
provided a first insight into the ranges of energy consumption achieved by
various types of AC systems in UK Offices. The work showed that, despite
serving similar activities, the energy consumptions achieved
in practice could be very different, and that some of this difference
depended on the design of the cooling system [3.1].
A follow-on BRE funded project which analysed the breakdown of energy use
between the various components of the AC systems, showing the role of all
system components in overall AC system energy use, was undertaken between
2002 and 2004 (led by Ian Knight [3.2]). The above research projects led
to an invitation to Ian Knight to participate as a Work Package Leader in
the European project AUDITAC (Field benchmarking and market development
for audit methods in air conditioning) proposed by École des Mines, Paris
between Jan 2005 and Dec 2006. This project demonstrated that application
of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Standard for the
mandatory Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) Inspection of
AC systems was difficult to achieve in practice with the number of
accredited inspectors available in Europe, as well as not being cost
effective in many instances [3.3].
Ian Knight proposed and ran a further European scale project (HARMONAC -
Harmonizing Air Conditioning Inspection and Audit Procedures in the
Tertiary Building Sector) to assess the impact of inspection of air
conditioning systems on energy efficiency in practice, with a view to
establishing savings achieved and identifying where procedural
improvements might be found. HARMONAC ran from September 2007 to August
2010, and established that the range of energy conservation opportunities
identified in individual AC systems by inspection was limited to 37% of
the potential energy savings identified in those same systems by
concurrent detailed energy measurements [p10 3.4]. This meant that the
full range of potential energy savings was only accessible by detailed
measurement. [3.4,3.5]
Following HARMONAC, Ian Knight is now running the pan-European iSERV
project (Inspection of HVAC systems through continuous monitoring and
benchmarking — 2011 - 2014).
iSERV applies the HARMONAC findings to 1000+ European HVAC systems across
20+ EU Member States, to establish HVAC component energy benchmarks for
specific end use activities [3.6]. Preliminary findings indicate that the
project objectives, to achieve the savings postulated in HARMONAC by
providing feedback from HVAC data to the system owners, are being exceeded
— with savings of up to 33% of total building electrical energy use being
found.
References to the research
3.1 Knight IP and Dunn GN — "Measured Energy Consumption
and Carbon Emissions of Air- Conditioning in UK Office Buildings".
Building Services Engineering Research & Technology Journal, p89-98,
26-2 CIBSE (2005) London. DOI: 10.1191/0143624405bt111oa
3.2 Knight IP, Dunn GN and Hitchin ER — "Measuring System
Efficiencies of Liquid Chiller and Direct Expansion", ASHRAE Journal,
47(2) pages 26 - 32, February 2005. ISSN: 0001-2491. Available from HEI on
request.
3.4 Knight IP et al - "HARMONAC - Harmonizing Air Conditioning
Inspection and Audit Procedures in the Tertiary Building Sector. Energy
Consumption in European Air Conditioning Systems and the Air Conditioning
System Inspection Process. Final Report to European Commission." September
2007 to August 2010. Grant agreement no. EIE/07/132/SI2.466705. pp. 240
(Appendices pp. 2000+) December 2010. URL: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/7427/
3.6 Knight IP et al — "Benchmarking HVAC System Energy Use Using
Sub-hourly Data", CLIMA 2013 Conference, pp 12, Prague, June 2013
published in proceedings. Available from HEI.
Details of the impact
Impact on EU policy, legislation and standards
HARMONAC was the
major reference source used as evidence concerning the impact of the
original Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2002 on energy
efficiency in HVAC systems in practice [5.1, 5.2]. The EPBD is the primary
European Directive governing energy efficiency in buildings for EU Member
States. From research undertaken during HARMONAC, and presented by Ian
Knight on 3 separate occasions [5.3] to EU Member State legislators, the
EPBD was accordingly amended during its recast in 2010 to allow automatic
monitoring and feedback systems to be used to complement or replace
inspection.
Gordon Sutherland, Senior Project Officer for the European Commission
Executive Agency on Competitiveness and Innovation identified HARMONAC as
`instrumental in demonstrating the feasibility of monitoring
air-conditioning systems'. [5.2] .
This influence on the legislative agenda continues with the iSERV
project, presented to the Concerted Action 3 project in April 2011,
December 2011 and October 2013 [5.4] as part of aiding EU Member States to
transpose the recast EPBD. Data from real buildings (including major
multi- nationals, see table 1) is informing energy savings achieved.
HARMONAC has also had a demonstrable impact on the current revisions to
the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Standards in this area -
EN 15239 and 15240 (on which the relevant British Standards are based):
"... HARMONAC and iSERV and their impact on the further development of
CEN Standards EN 15240 and 15239 ... have created a solid basis for many
developments that have been found necessary..." — Jorma Railio (CEN
member, and former CEN Convenor). [5.5].
Information for tenderers for rewriting the revised CEN standards in 2013
onwards refers explicitly to the HARMONAC work when considering the
standards updates required for EN15239 and EN15240, which refer to the
elements needed to be present in Inspecting Air Conditioning and
Ventilation systems [5.6].
Practitioner impact: professional guidance to the building services
industry and building designers
The UK Building Services Professional Body (CIBSE) and REHVA (the umbrella
body for the European Building Services Professional Bodies) are full
partners in iSERV, and are promoting the project to their 110,000 Building
Services professional members. Their participation in iSERV follows
presentations on HARMONAC to REHVA and the EU Professional Bodies [5.7].
These bodies, in turn, have disseminated the findings and associated tools
and guidance to date from the iSERV project to their members in Journal
Papers, Workshops and Articles [5.8, 5.9]. Both CIBSE and REHVA intend to
publish professional guidance documents based on the project findings but
these will not appear until after the project finishes in 2014.
The UK Education Funding Agency, which provides capital funding for
schools in England (£2 billion in 2012-13), including building projects,
now requires all new Schools built in England using their funding to use
the iSERV spreadsheet as part of the design and operation of new
buildings. [5.10]
Economic impact: reducing EU energy consumption
In 2007, the 27 EU Member States used around 2,800 TWh of electricity, of
which Building HVAC systems consumed 11.1%. HARMONAC [3.2] concluded that
2% of the total electrical energy use could be saved across the EU Member
States from energy efficiency improvements in HVAC systems. These savings
would be worth around €6Bn/annum at current costs.
iSERV provides, and demonstrates, a process to allow these savings to be
achieved in practice. Initial results concerning 3 buildings from HARMONAC
show that these savings may have been underestimated by up to a factor of
10, although this will not be conclusively shown until all 1000+ iSERV
systems buildings have been evaluated.
The beneficiaries of HARMONAC and iSERV range from Building End Users
(via reduced operating costs and improved internal conditions), Building
Services Designers, Operators and Maintainers (better understanding of the
operation and maintenance of AC systems in buildings), through to
Professional Bodies and EU Member State Legislators.
Table1 lists the range of Multinational companies participating in iSERV
as both data providers and receivers. This shows breadth of impact being
achieved across Europe.
Tesco |
British Telecom |
WALDNER |
Rhoss |
Lennox |
FNAC |
First Facility |
Siemens |
ArCotel |
McDonalds |
Baxter |
Schneider Electric |
SKANSKA |
Socomec |
Vodafone |
Allianz |
Johnson Controls |
Media markt |
Eversheds |
Metro AG |
Cofely |
LG Electronics |
Marriott |
DAIKIN |
Honeywell |
Spar |
Best Western |
NH Hoteles |
Unicredit |
Carrier |
H&M |
Falkensteiner |
Ibis Hotels |
France Air |
Eurobank |
ALDI |
Relais & Chateaux |
Mercure |
MITIE |
Toshiba |
IKEA |
Grupo Inditex (ZARA, MANGO etc) |
Swegon |
Santander |
Trane |
Sources to corroborate the impact
- The final report from the European Commission's Intelligent Energy
Europe Concerted Action II Project, 2010, details the impact of HARMONAC
on the recast EPBD legislative process (pages I-7 and pages II-55
onwards)
: http://www.epbd-ca.org/Medias/Downloads/CA_Book_Implementing_the_EPBD_Featuring_Country_Reports_2010.pdf
- Ongoing impact on policy and implementation is demonstrated in Gordon
Sutherland's and Bruce Young's articles in this issue. REHVA Journal,
Volume 49, Issue 3, March 2012. http://www.rehva.eu/index.php?id=140
- Confirmation of impact of the EU legislators transposing the EPBD into
national legislation in CONFIDENTIAL MINUTES/PRESENTATIONS/AGENDAS at
Lyons IEE Concerted Action II Meeting (2008), Prague IEE Concerted
Action II Meeting (2008), and Amsterdam IEE Concerted Action II Meeting
(2010). Four PDFs provided.
- Confirmation of presentation to the EU legislators transposing the
recast EPBD into national legislation from CONFIDENTIAL MINUTES of
Vienna IEE Concerted Action III Meeting( 2011).
- Email exchange with Jorma Railio (CEN member, and former CEN
Convenor))on 26th January 2012. It corroborates the claimed impact of
HARMONAC on the rewriting of the CEN Standards in this area which is
currently underway and due for completion in 2014.
- CEN Document CEN/TC 156 N1101 (dated14/2/2013). ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR REQUEST FOR TENDER EPBD (M/480) PHASE 2. Corroborates claim of
impact on CEN Standards EN15239 and EN15240 on page 4.
- Invited presentation and workshop on the IEE HARMONAC Project final
findings. CLIMA 2010 and REHVA Congress May 2010, Amsterdam. This source
corroborates claims of impact on the Profession. This workshop led REHVA
deciding to participate in iSERV.
- REHVA iSERV Vol 49, Issue 1, Jan 2012 p 6 — 11, p 53. Example of REHVA
iSERVE publication which corroborates impact on the profession and wider
Industry, as REHVA is the umbrella body for all the EU
Member States Building Services professionals: http://www.rehva.eu/index.php?id=150&L=0%2527
- Smith, Alex — "Early Warning System", (January 2013), CIBSE
Journal, pp59-62. Confirmation that the professional body CIBSE is
citing ISERV findings: http://www.cibsejournal.com/archive/PDFs/CIBSE-Journal-2013-01.pdf
- The use of iSERV is specified in the UK Education Funding Agency's
Specification for Future Schools (2012) pp 28, 39, 41, 42, 44 - 47, 53. http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/p/psbp%20sos%20june%202013.pdf
All testimony, documents and web pages available on request from the HEI.