Public buildings in Europe must acquire an energy performance certificate and hang it in plain view. This label is the nutritional facts of the built environment.
Since it’s easy to forget how much energy big buildings consume, a visual depiction of a building’s efficiency (or not) hangs on the wall for all to see. These “energy identity cards” establish a common basis for comparing similar buildings all over Germany. Hospitals, libraries, swimming pools, high schools, restaurants, prisons, and offices must rate their buildings with an accredited energy auditor. Owners then hang the declaration about their building in a prominent spot within the entry hall.
The program affects public buildings >1000 M2 (10,700 sqft). Building audit costs range from .20 cents/M2 to 1€/M2. The cost is shouldered by the building owner.
“I think in Germany, energy is a rather public topic,” said Claudia Alt of the Berlin Energy Agency.
As of January, 2007 all residential buildings are also affected. All homeowners and apartment building owners are responsible for auditing their homes and keeping the energy ID card on hand. When tenants search for a new apartment, or house, they ask to see the prospective home’s energy certificate. The data on the certificate is based on average heat and lighting expenses from the past three years. Popular apartment-finding websites in Germany mark efficient homes with an ENERGY tag derived from the energy audit.
The purpose of energy labeling is to empower consumers with more information as they pick homes, and to put public pressure on large buildings to economize their consumption.
The “Energieausweis” or, “Energy ID card” lists a building’s technical specs, a picture of the façade, and a bar graph that shows all energy used for cooling, ventilation, heat, lighting, and hot water for drinking. Also depicted is a scale, ranging from green to red. It benchmarks where the building lies in comparison with peers. Old construction vs. new construction, relative size, purpose and age of building are all taken into account.
A side benefit of the energy label is an increased number of Energy Performance Contracts for efficiency retrofits. Further, the Berlin Energy Agency (a state-sponsored ESCO) convenes monthly working groups for municipal energy commissioners.
Since the program was initiated at the EU level, other countries have their own version. I spotted an energy label in Liverpool at the Tate Gallery. The label revealed that the building was really inefficient – in the red zone! Enthusiastically, I inquired at the reception desk if the museum planned a retrofit in order to remove the black eye hanging on their wall. “No, actually,” the staff responded. “In fact you are the first person to ever ask about it.”
Educating the public about the certificates is as important as going to the trouble of hanging them.
http://www.energieausweis-fuer-berlin.de/energieausweis.php/cat/1/title/Startseite
http://www.berliner-e-agentur.de/index.php?idcat=38
http://ieea.erba.hu/ieea/page/Page.jsp?op=project_detail&prid=1560
