Takeaways from the QualDeEPC roundtable on recommendations in light of the EPBD recast

On February 3rd, 2022, the QualDeEPC project organised a roundtable with key European associations working in the field of Energy Performance of Buildings and Energy Certification. The participants could benefit from an exclusive first presentation of the QualDeEPC draft policy recommendations, which take into consideration the recent recast of the EPBD published by the European Commission on December 15th, 2021. For more information, check out the slides where the draft recommendations are summarised.

These recommendations aim at improving the Energy Performance Certificates, their design, content, and use across Europe. Targeting the 7 priorities of the project, QualDeEPC aims to include means, deadlines, and targets that could accelerate the renovation of the European building stock while ensuring a certain level of convergence of the EPC schemes across the EU.

In general, the recommendations are drafted to contribute to 3 main objectives:

• Establish a close link between EPCs and deep energy renovation
• Improve the quality of EPC schemes
• Improve the cross-EU convergence of EPC schemes

More specifically, the project always takes into consideration its 7 priorities, and the draft policy recommendations are no exception. These are:

• A) Improving the recommendations for renovation, which are provided on the EPCs, towards deep energy renovation
• B) Online tool for comparing EPC recommendations to deep energy renovation recommendations
• C) Creating Deep Renovation Network Platforms
• D) Regular mandatory EPC assessor training on assessment and recommendations required for certification/accreditation and registry
• E) High user-friendliness of the EPC
• F) Voluntary/mandatory advertising guidelines for EPCs
• G) Improving compliance with the mandatory use of EPCs in real estate advertisements

Overall, the improvements on the seven priorities of EPCs and comprehensive policy proposals and draft policy recommendations of the QualDeEPC project were welcomed by the 29 participants and well taken.

The enhanced EPC template provided by QualDeEPC was also appreciated, and participants felt that the balance between technical complexity and affordability of the EPCs should be maintained so that they remain reliable and yet cost-effective.

Discussions included the importance of building renovation passports, which describe staged renovation as the prime instrument for deep energy renovation, or when they are not available, how recommendations on EPCs can provide an alternative. Another issue was the merits, challenges, and limitations of EPCs with calculated energy consumption and measured energy consumption.

The EU policy recommendations will be published in English, and the national policy recommendations will be published in national languages as well as in English. All of them will be made available on the QualDeEPC and partners‘ websites.