ECBCS Research Outcomes

Objective: To be the primary international information centre on research and development in the fields of air infiltration and ventilation, and thus to provide a high quality technical and information forum covering the areas of ventilation and air infiltration in the built environment with respect to efficient energy use, good indoor air quality and thermal comfort.

New Reports 

• "VIP 34 Needs and methods for ductwork cleaning in France"
• "VIP 33 CO2 as indicator for the indoor air quality - General principles"
• "VIP 32 Hybrid Ventilation"

Objective: Investigate the performance of responsive building elements and their integration in new responsive building concepts, and to develop guidelines and procedures for the design of responsive building concepts, including the estimation of the environmental performance of responsive building elements.

New Project Reports 

• "Responsive Building Concepts - Expert Guide Part 1"
• "Responsive Building Elements - Expert Guide Part 2"
• "Designing with Responsive Building Elements"

Objective: Identify and to accelerate the widespread use of appropriate energy efficient high-quality lighting technologies and their integration with other building systems, making them the preferred choice of lighting designers, owners and users.

New Project Reports 

• "Guidebook on Energy-Efficient Electric Lighting for Buildings"
• "Guidebook on Energy-Efficient Electric Lighting for Buildings - Extended Summary"

Objective: Improve the decision making process for energy retrofitting of government non-residential buildings, e.g. office / administrative buildings, dormitories / barracks, service buildings and production and maintenance facilities. Though the focus is on government buildings, many results can be applied to similar private sector buildings. Collectively, these building types represent a substantial part of the non-residential building stock.

New Project Reports 

• "Energy Process Assessment Protocol"
• "Best Practice Guidelines for Using Energy Performance Contracts To Improve Government Buildings"

Objective: Enable the effective commissioning of existing and future buildings for improved operating performance. The commissioning techniques developed through this research will help to transition the industry from the intuitive approach that is currently employed in the operation of buildings to a more systematic operation that focuses on achieving significant energy savings.

New Project Reports

• "Commissioning Overview "
• "Commissioning Tools for Existing and Low energy Buildings"
• "Commissioning Cost-Benefit and Persistence of Savings"
• "Flow Charts and Data Models for Initial Commissioning of Advanced and Low Energy Building Systems"

Objective: Promote the most efficient combinations of heating and cooling techniques in air-conditioned buildings, due to the use of heat recovery and reversible systems. The main goals are:

• To allow the quick identification of heat pumping potential in existing buildings
• To help designers to consider “heat pumping” solutions and to allow for future possibilities
• To document the technological possibilities and heat pumping solutions
• To improve commissioning and operation of buildings equipped with heat pump systems
• To make available a set of reference case studies

New Project Reports

• "Analysis of Building Heating and Cooling Demands in the Purpose of Assessing the Reversibility and Heat Recovery Potentials"
• "Review of Heat Recovery and Heat Pumping Solutions"
• "Simulation tools: Reference Book"
• "Design Handbook for Reversible Heat Pump Systems with and without Heat Recovery"
• "Overview of Cases Studies and Demonstrations of Heat Pump Systems for Tertiary Buildings"
• 11 Case Studies

Objective: From an economic and environmental point of view, high exergy energy sources should mainly be used in industry to allow for the production of high quality products. The Low Exergy (LowEx) approach entails matching the quality levels of exergy supply and demand, in order to streamline the use of high-value energy resources and make best use of low-value energy before it reaches the ambient environment.

New Project Reports 

• "Exergy Assessment Guidebook for the Built Environment"
• "Detailed Exergy Assessment Guidebook for the Built Environment"

Objective: Develop and demonstrate innovative whole building renovation concepts for typical apartment buildings, minimising the primary energy use to 30-50 kWh/(m2·year) for heating, cooling and domestic hot water. The concepts focus on standardized and prefabricated renovation modules for façades and roofs. It is anticipated that they will substantially enhance the building renovation quality and comfort in existing residential buildings.

New Project Reports 

• "Retrofit Advisor Tool"
• "Retrofit Module Design Guide"
• "Building Renovation Case Studies"
• "Retrofit Strategies Design Guide"
• "Retrofit Simulation Report"

Objective: Local energy planning on a community level should be, in addition to being a traditional engineering task, an interdisciplinary approach covering aspects of decision-making, project management and implementation instruments; apply the principles of such a holistic approach to community energy planning and to provide the necessary methods and instruments to urban planners, decision makers and stakeholders.

Research findings not yet available

Objective: Study current net-zero, near net-zero and very low energy buildings and to develop a common understanding, a harmonised international definitions framework, tools, innovative solutions and industry guidelines. To achieve this objective the project will document and propose practical NZEB demonstration projects, with convincing architectural quality.

Research findings not yet available

Objective: Enrich our understanding of energy performance of buildings, to broaden our knowledge about determinant factors for total building energy use, and to assess short- and long-term energy measures, policies and technologies.

Research findings not yet available

Objective: Undertake an expansive analysis of micro-cogeneration and associated technologies. The scope of activities will encompass:

• multi-source micro-cogeneration systems, polygeneration systems (i.e. integrated heating / cooling / power generation systems) and renewable hybrid systems (collectively termed micro-generation);
• integration of micro-generation, energy storage and demand side management technologies at a local level (integrated systems);
• customised and optimum control strategies for integrated systems;
• analysis of integrated systems performance when serving single and multiple residences along with small commercial premises;
• analysis of the wider effects of micro-generation on the power distribution system.

Research findings not yet available

Objectives:

• develop a common framework for probabilistic assessment of energy retrofitting measures
• develop and validate probabilistic tools for energy use, life cycle cost and hygrothermal performance
• collect and analyse data in order to create stochastic data sets
• apply and demonstrate the probabilistic methodology on at least five real life case studies, with a focus on residential buildings

Research findings not yet available

Objectives:

• Provide tools, guidelines, recommendations, best practice examples and background information for policy makers, designers, users, owners and developers that help to reduce GHG emissions in the existing buildings sector
• Link the IEA buildings-related research programmes to end users through accessible language and tools that enables them to understand the problems and risks associated with energy efficiency and their role as users, decision makers, developers or stakeholders
• Clarify the limits of the emerging concepts and their associated points of view in order to validate their effective impact on achieving present goals
• Include the notion of 'added value' as a key parameter for the existing building retrofit process

Research findings not yet available

Objectives:

• Collect existing research results concerning embodied energy and CO2 emissions due to building construction, to analyze them and to summarize into the state of the art
• Develop guidelines of the methods for evaluating the embodied energy and CO2 emissions due to building construction
• Develop guidelines of the measures to design and construct buildings with less embodied energy and CO2 emissions

Research findings not yet available

Objectives:

• Develop common quality procedures for dynamic full scale testing to come to a better performance analysis
• Develop models to characterise and predict the effective thermal performances of building components and whole buildings

Research findings not yet available

Objectives:

• Establish a methodology for analysis of thermal environmental systems from the perspective of reducing mixture and transfer losses
• Develop a new concept for a temperature and humidity independent control system
• Research into radiant terminals and promising directions for the design of efficient HVAC systems for large spaces in buildings

Research findings not yet available