FAQ
What is an innovative system/technology, in the framework of the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB) regulations?
How is the CEN work organised?
How and where do I obtain EN standards?
Are CEN standards only available in English?
What is the relation between the CEN standards for the EPBD and national standards?
What is the relation with the international (ISO) standards?
What is the status of the EPBD related CEN standards?
What is the current status of the EPBD CEN standards and where can I obtain these?
If the CEN standards are used, will this mean that a given building and system has the same energy performance rating in all Member States?
Why not one CEN standard covering all EPBD aspects?
More information?
> What is an innovative system/technology, in the framework of the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB) regulations?
In the framework of EPB regulations, an innovative system/technology is defined as a system/technology:
· that in most cases gives a better EPB performance than the common systems/technologies and,
· whose performance cannot be assessed by the standard EPB calculation procedure.
According to the definition mentioned here above, a glazing unit with a very low thermal transmittance (e.g. U-value = 0.3 W/m²K) is not an "innovative technology" if the procedure in the EPB regulation is based on EN 673, because this standard allows the calculation of such U-value – independently of the fact that this glazing can be very innovative from a technical point of view. On the other hand, an electrochromic glazing is an innovative technology if the EPB method foresees no procedure for handling the fact that the properties of this glazing vary with time. This will probably be the case because there is currently no CEN standard to estimate the energy performances of such glazing on an annual basis.
It is important to note that, according to the above definition, a technology can be considered as innovative in one Member State and not in another. For instance, ventilation systems based on humidity control are integrated in the French basis procedure of EPB regulation; they are therefore not considered in France as innovative systems whereas they will be considered as such in most of the other European countries.
More information can be found in the final report of the SAVE ENPER project (see: www.buildingsplatform.eu/cms/index.php or www.enper.org) which will be made available by the SAVE ASIEPI project, started in October 2007 (www.asiepi.eu – coming soon).
Author: Nicolas HEIJMANS (BBRI)
Date: 14/01/08
> How is the CEN work organised?
CEN is the European Association of national standardisation institutes, the so called National Standards Bodies (NSBs). These NSBs are responsible for contact with the interested market parties and experts preparing the CEN standards in the same way they are when preparing national standards. It is up to the NSBs to nominate experts for the preparation of the CEN standards. Member States officials, responsible for the national legislation, may (and in several cases do) facilitate participation of experts from their country, as an efficient way to contribute to the quality and practicability of the standards.
More information on how the CEN work is organised is given in the Information Paper on CEN standards to support the EPBD (P02), see the section Platform Services/Information papers.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> How and where do I obtain EN standards?
CEN standards (ENs) or draft CEN standards (prENs) and combined EN-ISO standards are officially published by CEN in Brussels but can only be obtained from the so called National Standards Bodies (NSBs). The CEN website (www.cenorm.be) provides the contacts and also has a search engine to see which standard activities are in progress and which existing and draft standards are available.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> Are CEN standards only available in English?
It is a fact that in general most of the preparatory work in the Technical Committees and working groups in CEN is in English. The underlying documentation and the preliminary drafts are in English. When publishing a draft standard (prEN), it is up to DIN (German NSB) and AFNOR (French NSB) to decide if they want to translate and provide CEN with a German or French version. The time schedules allow for 2 months to make this translation available. It is up to the so called National Standards Bodies (NSBs) to decide if other national language versions will be produced. This decision will only be taken if this is required by the users. If the user group is a small expert group of, for example, software developers this seems unlikely. When the standard is referred to in a more general way by a bigger target group, translation should be considered by the NSB.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> What is the relation between the CEN standards for the EPBD and national standards?
There is an agreement between CEN and the national standards bodies (NSBs) that CEN standardisation work shall be considered before starting national standardisation work. If CEN work is already started, this line shall be followed and national work should not be done. It is called a "Stand still". After the ENs are published, existing and possibly conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn within a certain time frame. If national legislation is referring to these national standards, the NSB can get some years to repair this. A three to five years period is considered as the maximum deviation period in which national standards shall be withdrawn.
Note, however, that in some Member States the building regulations do not always refer to national standards, but e.g. have (part of) the assessment procedures included in the regulations. In the case of the Construction Products Directive, the European Commission issues mandates to CEN to make use of CEN standards mandatory for all Member States. The EPBD allows a national/regional differentiation. See also the question on the status of the EPBD related CEN standards.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> What is the relation with the international (ISO) standards?
There is an agreement between CEN and ISO saying that they shall not work on the same Work Items. New work can only be started in CEN if it is not already on the ISO program and vice versa.
CEN-Technical Committees are encouraged to seek contact with related ISO-Technical Committees to agree on possible parallel voting. This means that the European standard (EN) may become a combined CEN-ISO standard (ISO-EN) if accepted by ISO.
Existing ENs will by preference be maintained by related ISO-Technical Committees. Only when related ISO-Technical Committees are not interested or not giving it enough priority, will the CEN-TC continue the normal 5 years maintenance schedule or faster if needed.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> What is the status of the EPBD related CEN standards?
The EPBD has stimulated the more rapid development of CEN standards (ENs) for energy calculation procedures for buildings and their systems, and related standards needed to specify buildings and systems performance in relation to the Directive. The European Commission issued a mandate to CEN in order to speed up the development of standards needed for the EPBD implementation.
Within the given short timescale it was impossible to produce a set of approved and published standards to be implemented in the Member States before the national implementation of the EPBD.
Consequently, Member States, in the preparation of national legislation, have to refer to either existing or new national procedures. Most Member States are planning to adopt the CEN standards in one way or another within a few years from publication.
See also the question concerning whether the CEN standards will lead to the same EP rating in all M.S.
More information on the status of the CEN standards is given in the Information Paper on CEN standards to support the EPBD (P02), see the section Platform Services/Information papers.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> What is the current status of the EPBD CEN standards and where can I obtain these?
Most of the EPBD CEN standards are currently available as drafts (prEN). Some are already finalised as EN or EN-ISO standards. The standards and draft standards can be ordered from the National Standards Body (see www.cenorm.be ).
More information on this subject is given in:
1. The Information Paper on CEN standards to support the EPBD (P02), see the section Platform Services/Information papers.
2. The section Themes/Calculation Methods.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> If the CEN standards are used, will this mean that a given building and system has the same energy performance rating in all Member States?
No, it will not lead to the same energy performance rating in each Member State.
Regional differences in climate, building tradition and user behaviour in Europe will have an impact on the input data and consequently on the energy performance.
The standards developed to support the practical implementation of the EPBD have to be flexible enough to accommodate these differences, both in the (national) choice between different options provided in the CEN standards, and in the (national) choice of input data and boundary conditions. See also the question on the status of the EPBD related CEN standards.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> Why not one CEN standard covering all EPBD aspects?
There are several reasons why there is not just one CEN standard covering all EPBD aspects. The two main reasons are:
1. The CEN standards cover different types, with different application areas and different target groups, ranging from building designers and inspectors to specific specialists on building physics or systems (lighting, ventilation, cooling, heating, hot water, ..).
2. CEN didn't start this work from scratch. The short timescale and pre-existing drafts (from 5 CEN Technical Committees, each covering a specific field of expertise) have resulted in more fragmentation than if started from scratch. On the other hand, starting from scratch would undeniably have taken much more time and discussion. A guidance document ("Umbrella Document") is being produced on the application of the standards. Moreover, it is expected that, over time the standards will converge into a more unified set.
More information on this subject is given in the Information Paper on CEN standards to support the EPBD (P02), see the section Platform Services/Information papers.
Author: Dick van DIJK (TNO)
Date: 14/04/06
> More information?
More information can be found in the Information Papers on CEN standards and calculation procedures.
See also recent presentations on CEN standards: