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Heating, Cooling & Ventilation

The field of Heating, Cooling & Ventilation has been given great attention, aiming the reduction of energy consumption by buildings which will consequently reduce the gas emissions (with carbon dioxide (CO2) being the prominent one) responsible for the greenhouse effect. It is noteworthy that buildings consume 40% of the energy in the European Union (EU) and they are responsible for 30% of CO2 emissions. Special studies and the experience show that there is great potential for energy savings in this area.

In the context of achieving the overall goal of securing energy supply and the overall policy to improve energy efficiency throughout all economic activities, the EU has published the Directive 2002/91 / EC about the buildings' energy performance. As per the Directive, EU Member States are required to adopt legislation that defines the national methodology for calculating the energy efficiency of buildings and after defining the energy consumption threshold by building category, to establish a building certification scheme.

Along the publication of the Directive, the EU instructed the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) to develop a series of standards ("Umbrella Document") that will support the Directive's implementation. These standards are developed by the European Technical Committees (CEN / TCs). The work of the above committees is coordinated by a team of the CEN Technical Council (CEN / BT 173 EPBD).

The work plan of these Committees includes 52 technical standards, which are divided into 5 distinct themes and constitute a comprehensive approach to the building's energy management aspects. The first two themes include standards that deal with the comprehensive assessment of energy use in buildings and the energy attributed to them. Theme 3 includes standards that define energy requirements for thermal and refrigeration loads, while Theme 4 concerns standards that support Theme 3 by providing the necessary data for the calculation of energy requirements. Theme 5 includes standards for monitoring and controlling the energy performance of buildings. The first and last Themes support the implementation of the general requirements of the EU Directive, while the other three support the application of the articles of the Directive concerning analytical computational methods.