Accommodating new calculation approaches in next-generation energy performance assessments

Abstract

Building energy policy, such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), has a direct effect on use of building models and related parameters. Modelling annual energy consumption of a building is a different task to characterizing the demand of that building at a transient level; to do so at scale requires additional complexity. With the ubiquity of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) across Europe, there is a tendency to use these to communicate building energy demand to policy. However, there is growing evidence of EPCs being applied to areas which they were not designed to serve. By comparing alternative techniques with current methodologies, this study proposes future directions for standardized energy assessment of dwellings, proposing a framework for critiquing such techniques. New methods are formulated that make use of simulation and statistical techniques developed by the authors, and allow for urban-scale modelling that is consistent with traditional energy assessment.