Standards for the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB)

A set of Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB) standards plays a key role in the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). A distinction is made between overarching standards, standards dealing with building design and fabric, and standards dealing with specific technical building systems or services.

There are five overarching standards each covering an important element in the overall assessment of the building’s energy performance:

• ISO 52000-1 provides the general framework of the energy assessment. It establishes a modular structure for assessing the energy performance of new and existing buildings in a holistic way. It also contains an overview of common terms, definitions and symbols for the whole set of EPB standards.
• ISO 52003-1 provides general insight into how to make good use of the output values of an EPB assessment for different purposes. It describes a set of EPB indicators and their relationship with EPB requirements and ratings. It also includes two EPB labels and lists the steps toward establishing an EPB certification scheme.
• ISO 52010-1 contains procedures for how to obtain the required climatic data as input values or as boundary conditions in energy calculations.
• ISO 52016-1 provides the procedures to calculate room temperatures as well as a building’s heating and cooling energy needs. Many factors come together in this calculation: thermal insulation, air tightness and ventilation, building mass, solar heat load and passive solar energy, and internal heat gains from energy losses.
• ISO 52018-1 establishes various optional EPB indicators at the level of building design and building fabric.