My background is an EPC assessor in the UK, but I am looking at ways that other countries calculate the energy and CO2 for an EPC. I am focusing on Scottish buildings with thick stone solid walls, so ideally would be comparing our method with that in Spain or Italy? I will be looking at how thermal mass is calculated and applied in Scotland, and am interested to see how it is done abroad.
I have downloaded LIDAR (Spain) but cannot use it as my basic Spanish doesn't extend to software! I read in one of the ASIEPI publications that the code behind LIDAR is due to be released in 2009, does anybody know anything about that or where I can find it? All help gratefully received.
Kind regards.
Calculation of Thermal Mass in EPCs
In Ireland we have a simple formula we use in our DEAP energy rating software (similar to SAP)
Area of thermally massive elements divided by total floor area (see Section 7.3 for further detail).
As an example, any AmAf value between 0.26 and 0.75 is considered Medium-low.
The result of this calc is then input into DEAP and the energy rating is calculated.
In answer to your post
Hi Victoria,
I have previously worked in Italy on EPC, so I might try to reply to your post. In Italy there are several software to assess the energy performace of a building, of which the one I prefer is propably XClima, by the Climate-House Agency www.agenziacasaclima.it (the website is also in English). I think that there is a basic version of the software that you can download from their website for free.
According to this procedure, buildings are divided between light, normal and heavy according to the type of construction. The weight of the building influences the utilization factor "eta" of solar gains and internal gains in the energy balance, but doesn´t affect for example the heat losses or the efficiency ot the thermal system (which in the basic version of the software is not even considered). For what I remember, the difference you get in terms of anual energy for space heating is small when you change the "weight class" of the building, a bit more important in those buildings with high solar gains (big windows).
For what concerns the influence of thermal mass in the summer season, I actually still have to found a convincing simplified calculation procedure or software which allow to get reliable results which support the planning. In case you should know or find any, please keep me informed.
Best
Sergio