User Manual

1.2. What constitutes energy efficiency?

The ratio of energy input to the calculated or estimated amounts of energy required to cover the

various requirements relating to the standardized use of a building serves as the measure of energy

efficiency. According to EU Directive "Energy Performance of Building Directive" (EPBD), the

following thermal and electrical forms of energy are considered when determining the energy

efficiency of a building:

· Heating

· DHW (domestic hot water)

· Cooling

· Ventilation

· Lighting

· Auxiliary energy

Source image: Prof. Dr. Ing. Rainer Hirschberg, FH Aachen, Deutschland

Example: Building without cooling

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Note

Equipment of building users, such as PCs, printers, machines (excluding building elevators), etc., are not part of the electrical

energy needs of a building for our purposes. The heat gains do, however, influence a building’s thermal energy needs.

Building energy efficiency

Thermal and electrical energy (in the example: ñHeat and ñElectricity) should be kept to a minimum

to achieve a high degree of energy efficiency.

The energy efficiency value for an individual building is determined by comparing it to reference

values. It could, for example, be documented in an energy pass for the building.

Executing regulations are assigned to the individual countries as per EN standard to determine the

size of the reference values or how to calculate them.

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Heat Electricity