Living EPC Tool for nZEB investments calculation
NEWS FROM EUROPE
27.05.2019
Written by REGEA
Decision makers on regional and local level in Central Europe often lack the necessary expertise and precise information necessary for making decisions on long term investments in the buildings sector. Therefore, eCentral project is primarily focused on increasing the overall capacity of public sector actors through easily understandable technical and financial tools that explain successful methods for complying with complicated nZEB regulations. As well known, nZEB is obligatory standard for new buildings and building permit demanding renovations of public buildings, which will soon be extended to all buildings.
The Living Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Tool is aiming to help public authorities to identify investment opportunities, by assessing current building stock and potentials for making cost-effective nZEB investments.
The Living EPC Tool is a complex interactive web-based application consisting of data from collected energy performance certificates and accompanying reports, updated with technical and financial parameters describing current status of each building, such as real-time consumption, real-time energy prices, real-time investments, data on additional reconstructions and technical systems replacements, thus acquiring the “living” component. As a result, the Living EPC Tool offers different combinations of energy efficiency and renewable measures for reaching nZEB requirements. As it has been designed according to requirements of public authorities, the result will be better understanding of the complete energy retrofitting process in accordance with nZEB standard and resulting energy, financial and environmental benefits. Constantly updated with new data from public authorities and tested by its users, the Living EPC tool presents a dynamic tool that allows having a better insight into state of existing building stock.
The Living EPC tool will be open to all local and regional governments of partner countries/regions in order to be used for creating a pipeline of nZEB projects.
The buildings inserted into the Living EPC Tool will form the EPC tool’s database, constantly updated with new ones. At least 24 public authorities from CE countries is expected to enter data into the database. The EPC tool’s database consisting of public buildings inventory is an excellent tool for making decisions about future renovation investments.
The viability of the Living EPC Tool will be tested during the trainings for public authorities. During the eCentral project lifetime, based on the Living EPC Tool, 26 feasibility studies of potential nZEB projects will be created in order to apply knowledge gained from the three pilot actions (Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary).
Increasing visibility of nZEB projects is necessary to ensure wider recognition of advantages that nZEB standard brings, compared to current minimum technical building (re)construction requirements. Living EPC Tool represents a powerful instrument that could be replicated in other CE/EU regions. Therefore, a technical guide for its use will be provided for public authorities outside of the project partnership.
The Living EPC Tool is expected to be available soon, via official eCentral project website.
