Energy Concept Adviser for Educational Buildings
1490 visits
Posting Date | 9 July 2010
Type of tool | Benchmarking tool, Evaluation System, Feasibility Model
Countries where the tool has been developed | Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Poland , United Kingdom , International Organizations
Country where the tool is in use | Denmark , Germany , Italy , Norway , Poland , United Kingdom , North America
Geographic Coverage | International
Theme | Building envelope (walls, windows,...), Heating, domestic hot water, Air conditioning, cooling, ventilation, air infiltration, Lighting, Controls, energy management systems, Energy efficiency technologies and materials, Public and non residential buildings, Very low energy buildings, Training and education, Campaigning and awareness raising
Target Group | Building professionals, Building occupants
Conditions of availability | Free
Price | 0
Validation/testing information | The tool has been validated with IEA Annex 36 based on other calculation tools. A report on this is available at http://www.annex36.com/eca/uk/06util/pdf/A36SubtaskC_Report_CalculationT...
Expertise required | Tool for decision makers. No detailed expertise needed, but general insight in buildings and energy performance. Parts of the tool such as case studies and retrofit measures as well as performance rating and problem related recommendations are thought to give inspiration into available energy saving mesures for the retrofit of educational buildings and need nearly no basic expertise. The use of the tool is self-explaining.
Number of users | 500
Input of the tool | Problem related recommendations for school buildings.
Performance rating of existing educational buildings: Selection of problem (out of a list).
International case studies on energy efficient retrofit of educational buildings: Selection of case study.
Retrofit measures for energy saving renovations of educational buildings: Selection of retrofit measure.
Simple to use energy assessment of a specific educational building in the actual state and with possible retrofit measures: Input of basic information like geometry (rough or detailed), building components (selection out of a list), HVAC components, lighting components (selection out of a list), selection of possible retrofit measures (selection of a list), use of default cost data or overwriting with own data.
Output of the tool | Problem related recommendations for school buildings.
Performance rating of existing educational buildings.
International case studies on energy efficient retrofit of educational buildings.
Retrofit measures for energy saving renovations of educational buildings.
Simple to use energy assessment of a specific educational building in the actual state and with possible retrofit measures. Development of an energy saving retrofit concept.
Strengths | easy to use, interesting case studies, comparison with national energy performance data of educational buildings, simple assessment tool for developing energy-efficient retrofit concepts, inspiring about case studies and retrofit measures as well as how to solve specific problems in existing educational buildings.
Weaknesses | Uses EN 832 as energy use calculation in combination with effort figures for different HVAC systems and a simplified lighting calculation method. Not adapted to current CEN standards. However this keeps the tool simple to use.
Can't be used for an energy performance certification.
Additional documents |
(2.67 MB)
Computer platform | Windows
Publisher | Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics
Publisher URL | http://www.annex36.com/eca/uk/01start/menu.html
Source of funding | National
Funding description | The ECA computer program has been developed as a decision support tool for educational buildings. It was prepared under IEA ECBCS programme Annex 36 - 'Retrofitting of Educational Buildings' under the leadership of the Operating Agent Hans Erhorn from the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics (IBP), Stuttgart.
Participants were:
Denmark: Cenergia Energy Consultants, DBUR Danish Building and Urban Research
Finnland: VTT Building and Transport
France: ENTPE DGCB - LASH
Germany: Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics (IBP), University of Stuttgart IKE, Bremen University of Applied Sciences Dept. of Architecture
Greece: National Technical University of Athens
Italy: ENEA ENE-SIST
Norway: Norwegian Building Research Institute
Poland: Poznan University of Technology Institute of Environmental Engineering
UK: Schools Building & Design Unit Dept. for Education & Employment
USA: U.S. Department of Energy
The work was funded by the national energy programmes. None of the participation organisations, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors, or their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any results or of any information disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. The program was prepared with the assistance and participation of representatives from many organizations based on consensus and available information.
This is the first and international version of the ECA. The national experts of the participating countries surveyed the careful development. Still the software could contain bugs. Users should carefully review the results to make sure that they are credible and consistent. If bugs or inconsistencies should occur, please inform your national representative (see information within the ECA).
The ECA is copyrighted under the property of the Operating Agent for the benefit of the participants. It may be reproduced and distributed in the participating countries of the Annex 36 project.
Tool Languages | English , German , Italian
The development of a software tool, the Energy Concept Adviser for the retrofit of educational buildings, is regarded as the main result of IEA ECBCS Annex 36. It shall be used by decision makers in administrations. With the help of the internet based, intuitively usable computer program energy-efficient retrofit shall be promoted, occuring retrofit-related problems in schools and other educational buildings solved and a better reliabilty on design and costs in the early planning state shall be possible.
Illustrations | 
Description | What is the Energy Concept Adviser?
The Energy Concept Adviser (ECA) is an electronic tool assisting in the design of renovations/retrofits focusing on energy savings of educational buildings (schools, university buildings and nursery schools). It will provide a potential list of solutions to specific energy related problems associated with the building shell, lighting or HVAC systems. The ECA contains more that 30 descriptions of exemplary retrofit/renovation projects and provides a wide and varied selection of retrofit technologies and strategies. The ECA will energy rate an existing educational building versus the national average for varied energy sources. Additionally, a calculation tool will provide energy savings and costs for retrofit technologies/strategies selected to be considered for improving the energy efficiency of the educational building.
Who is the target group of the Energy Concept Adviser?
The ECA was developed for educational building decision-makers and their staff, responsible for programming, planning and accomplishing the retrofit/renovation of existing facilities. With the use of the ECA, the energy saving potential within an existing building will be better understood during the development of a retrofit/renovation projects and therefore reduce the energy consumption of an existing building. The decision-makers will be provided with reliable information on conventional and innovative strategies and technologies and thereby gain improved planning reliability.
Who has developed the Energy Concept Adviser?
The Adviser was developed in the framework of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the project Annex 36 of the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme. Experts from 9 European countries and the USA brought in their national expertise, case studies and retrofit technologies to promote energy savings in the retrofit/renovation of existing buildings. See also 'Info&Contact'.
How to operate the Energy Concept Adviser?
The Energy Concept Adviser (ECA) is an electronic tool assisting in the design of renovations/retrofits focusing on energy savings of educational buildings (schools, university buildings and nursery schools). It will provide a potential list of solutions to specific energy related problems associated with the building shell, lighting or HVAC systems. The ECA contains more that 30 descriptions of exemplary retrofit/renovation projects and provides a wide and varied selection of retrofit technologies and strategies. The ECA will energy rate an existing educational building versus the national average for varied energy sources. Additionally, a calculation tool will provide energy savings and costs for retrofit technologies/strategies selected to be considered for improving the energy efficiency of the educational building.
Who is the target group of the Energy Concept Adviser?
The ECA was developed for educational building decision-makers and their staff, responsible for programming, planning and accomplishing the retrofit/renovation of existing facilities. With the use of the ECA, the energy saving potential within an existing building will be better understood during the development of a retrofit/renovation projects and therefore reduce the energy consumption of an existing building. The decision-makers will be provided with reliable information on conventional and innovative strategies and technologies and thereby gain improved planning reliability.
Who has developed the Energy Concept Adviser?
The Adviser was developed in the framework of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the project Annex 36 of the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Programme. Experts from 9 European countries and the USA brought in their national expertise, case studies and retrofit technologies to promote energy savings in the retrofit/renovation of existing buildings. See also 'Info&Contact'.
How to operate the Energy Concept Adviser?
The user-interface is developed for intuitive use; the information paths shall be recognized intuitively. Additional information in the retrofit concept development part is provided under '?'. The main navigation bars are reached by clicking on the project logo on the upper left side of each page.
Disclaimer:
The ECA computer program has been developed as a decision support tool for educational buildings. It was prepared under IEA ECBCS programme Annex 36 - 'Retrofitting of Educational Buildings' under the leadership of the Operating Agent Hans Erhorn from the Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics (IBP), Stuttgart.
Participants were:
Denmark: Cenergia Energy Consultants, DBUR Danish Building and Urban Research
Finnland: VTT Building and Transport
France: ENTPE DGCB - LASH
Germany: Fraunhofer Institute of Building Physics (IBP), University of Stuttgart IKE, Bremen University of Applied Sciences Dept. of Architecture
Greece: National Technical University of Athens
Italy: ENEA ENE-SIST
Norway: Norwegian Building Research Institute
Poland: Poznan University of Technology Institute of Environmental Engineering
UK: Schools Building & Design Unit Dept. for Education & Employment
USA: U.S. Department of Energy
The work was funded by the national energy programmes. None of the participation organisations, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors, or their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any results or of any information disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. The program was prepared with the assistance and participation of representatives from many organizations based on consensus and available information.
This is the first and international version of the ECA. The national experts of the participating countries surveyed the careful development. Still the software could contain bugs. Users should carefully review the results to make sure that they are credible and consistent. If bugs or inconsistencies should occur, please inform your national representative (see information within the ECA).
The ECA is copyrighted under the property of the Operating Agent for the benefit of the participants. It may be reproduced and distributed in the participating countries of the Annex 36 project.
Tool website URL(s) | http://www.annex36.com/eca/index.html
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