VTT
Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a free electronic
tool for the construction industry, housing associations and
home-owners, which makes it easier to evaluate the impact of different
kinds of energy improvements.
VTT’s E-PASS tool
identifies ways to improve a building’s energy efficiency and calculates
their cost-effectiveness. The tool is primarily designed for energy
audits in older residential buildings, but there are also options for
renovating office buildings. E-PASS is especially well suited for SMEs,
such as building contractors, architects and energy consultants, but it
can also be useful for housing associations and private home-owners.
E-PASS incorporates Finland’s entire residential building stock.
To localize the tool
in other European countries, corresponding default values must be
collected. This takes place with data collection templates that are
available.
The tool can be used
to calculate the investment cost of different kinds of renovations and a
building’s energy efficiency and carbon footprint before and after
improvements. The goal is to maximise user-friendliness so as to make it
as easy as possible to evaluate the current energy efficiency of
buildings. All the user needs to do is enter some basic information
about the building, such as the type of building, its floor area and
age, and the tool will calculate the building’s current energy
efficiency. The tool will then list potential improvements. These can
be, for example, changes to the building’s heating system, insulation or
windows. The tool also shows a breakdown of the effects of the
suggested improvements (kWh/m2, kgCO2/m2, energy costs).
VTT carried out a
survey among 1 500 small and medium-sized energy consultancies,
renovation businesses, architects’ firms and building contractors in
September, and 60% of the respondents said that they would be interested
in using the tool.
E-PASS energy performance assessment tool: http://cic.vtt.fi/epass/vtt/
VTT developed the E-PASS tool in the course of a pan-European NewBEE project http://www.newbee.eu/,
which is funded by the European Commission. The aim is to make it
easier for SMEs to penetrate the renovation market and to provide
information about renovation services to housing associations and
home-owners.
