The European Performance of Building Directive (EPBD), Directive 2001/92/EC, requires that Member States (MS) organise inspections of Boilers (art. 8) and of Air Conditioning systems (art. 9), to reduce energy consumption and limiting carbon dioxide emissions, and that these inspections be carried out in an independent manner by qualified and/or accredited experts, whether operating as sole traders or employed by public or private enterprise bodies.
The “recasting” of EPBD, Directive 2010/31/EU, modifies these articles, requiring in art. 15 that the inspection report contains also a comparison of the energy performance of the system inspected with that of (i) the best available system feasible and (ii) a system of similar type for which all relevant components achieve the level of energy performance required by the applicable legislation, and recommendations for the cost-effective improvement of the energy performance of the system of the building or parts thereof. The final users will therefore obtain a targeted information and advice to be effectively moved towards a better energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources, and the occurrence of a visit at home is the most suitable way to obtain this successfully.
The MS have transposed EPBD inspection articles in different ways, committing the inspection task to different categories of personnel (chimney sweepers, O&M service staff, energy auditors, consulting engineers), searching for the most cost effective solution for final users. Several difficulties have been encountered, and still adjustments of the selected solutions are necessary. The present project wants to demonstrate that the new enlarged task of inspectors can be accomplished in a cost-effective and successful way by the service personnel providing O&M to Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems.
As a second specific objective the project will provide training on energy advice and building losses to young or new inspectors, working in service companies, and will develop and test a suitable tool to produce specific recommendations by standard procedures and in an independent way.
The project expects to provide 20,000 inspections, distributed among partners according to the population involved in their target area, leaving to the partners to define the number of inspectors and their individual share of inspections, to produce energy efficiency improvements up to 20% in at least 30% of the inspected premises, and to train as inspectors 200 new or young service staff.
The impact beyond the end of the project foresees the involvement of the HVAC service personnel, through the participating regional enterprise associations (one per partner), and the corresponding national associations, capable of acting as multipliers in all other regions, extending the experience through all service companies, all over the 8 MS and beyond, offering results to the CA-EPBD-3 group.
Further Information:
Duration: 30 months (1 May 2011 – 31 October 2013)
National Coordinator (Cyprus): Dr Ioannis Michaelides, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, Cyprus University of Technology (CUT).
Dr Ioannis Michaelides, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
Dr Polyvios Eleftheriou, Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering,
Mr Flouris Xeni, Research Assistant, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
MOVIDA Project: "MOVing from Inspection to Domestic Advice by service companies"
Brief Description of the Project
The European Performance of Building Directive (EPBD), Directive 2001/92/EC, requires that Member States (MS) organise inspections of Boilers (art. 8) and of Air Conditioning systems (art. 9), to reduce energy consumption and limiting carbon dioxide emissions, and that these inspections be carried out in an independent manner by qualified and/or accredited experts, whether operating as sole traders or employed by public or private enterprise bodies.
The “recasting” of EPBD, Directive 2010/31/EU, modifies these articles, requiring in art. 15 that the inspection report contains also a comparison of the energy performance of the system inspected with that of (i) the best available system feasible and (ii) a system of similar type for which all relevant components achieve the level of energy performance required by the applicable legislation, and recommendations for the cost-effective improvement of the energy performance of the system of the building or parts thereof. The final users will therefore obtain a targeted information and advice to be effectively moved towards a better energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources, and the occurrence of a visit at home is the most suitable way to obtain this successfully.
The MS have transposed EPBD inspection articles in different ways, committing the inspection task to different categories of personnel (chimney sweepers, O&M service staff, energy auditors, consulting engineers), searching for the most cost effective solution for final users. Several difficulties have been encountered, and still adjustments of the selected solutions are necessary. The present project wants to demonstrate that the new enlarged task of inspectors can be accomplished in a cost-effective and successful way by the service personnel providing O&M to Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems.
As a second specific objective the project will provide training on energy advice and building losses to young or new inspectors, working in service companies, and will develop and test a suitable tool to produce specific recommendations by standard procedures and in an independent way.
The project expects to provide 20,000 inspections, distributed among partners according to the population involved in their target area, leaving to the partners to define the number of inspectors and their individual share of inspections, to produce energy efficiency improvements up to 20% in at least 30% of the inspected premises, and to train as inspectors 200 new or young service staff.
The impact beyond the end of the project foresees the involvement of the HVAC service personnel, through the participating regional enterprise associations (one per partner), and the corresponding national associations, capable of acting as multipliers in all other regions, extending the experience through all service companies, all over the 8 MS and beyond, offering results to the CA-EPBD-3 group.
Further Information:
Duration: 30 months (1 May 2011 – 31 October 2013)
National Coordinator (Cyprus): Dr Ioannis Michaelides, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, Cyprus University of Technology (CUT).
