Energy Efficiency Council - Efficiency Providers | Energy Users | Australia

IEA EBC Annexes and Working Groups

IEA EBC research is mainly undertaken through a series of research projects, or so-called 'Annexes'. Typically each Annex has a life span of three to four years, although extensions are possible if a continuing need for the activity is identified. Clear goals are set for each activity so that well defined products are generated. Publications are available for several ongoing and most completed annexes.

Working Groups are unique from Annexes, and they are set up to be able to collect knowledge on specific aspects between several countries, prepare new Annex projects or to follow-up on a completed project.

Annexes and Working Groups are structured so that each has a defined Operating Agent(s) who is responsible for the management and reporting of sub-tasks, research and publication of outcomes. Sitting underneath the Operating Agents are the participants. Participants consist of all parties who support the Annex or Working Group, and to which sub-tasks are assigned. 

Through the Council's engagement with DISER and the IEA, we have selected a list of Annexes deemed particularly pertinent to Australia, and these are listed below (alongside Operating Agents and participants for each).

There are other ongoing Annexes, for further information on these, please click here.

You can also check out:

• IEA EBC participant profiles; and
• IEA EBC webinars and briefings.

IEA EBC Annexes and Working Groups of relevance to Australia

In this section you'll find information on:

• EBC Annex 91 - Open BIM for Energy Efficient Buildings 
• EBC Annex 90 - Low Carbon, High Comfort Integrated Lighting
• EBC Annex 89 - Ways to Implement Net-zero Whole Life Carbon Buildings
• EBC Annex 88 - Evaluation and Demonstration of Actual Energy Efficiency of Heat Pump Systems in Buildings
• EBC Annex 87 – Energy and Indoor Environmental Quality Performance of Personalised Environmental Control Systems
• EBC Annex 86 – Energy Efficient Indoor Air Quality Management in Residential Buildings
• EBC Annex 85 – Indirect Evaporative Cooling
• EBC Annex 83 – Positive Energy Districts;
• EBC Annex 82 – Energy Flexible Buildings Towards Resilient Low Carbon Energy Systems
• EBC Annex 81 – Data-driven Smart Buildings;
• EBC Annex 80 – Resilient cooling;
• EBC Annex 79 – Occupant-Centric Building Design and Operation
• EBC Annex 70 – Building Energy Epidemiology: Analysis of Real Building Energy Use at Scale;
• EBC Annex 05 - Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre
• Working Group – Building Energy Codes.

 EBC Annex 91 - Open BIM for Energy Efficient Buildings

Status: Ongoing (2023 - 2026)

Operating Agents: Gerhard Zucker

Objectives:

• Making energy efficiency assessment and optimization become an integral feature of open BIM;
• Building the foundations for open BIM processes and data models that are beneficial especially for small and medium enterprises and enable seamless cooperation of all stakeholders in a common open BIM project; and
• Advancing the interoperability and harmonization of open BIM processes and data models both on national and international level.

Deliverables:

The following project deliverables are planned: 

• Identification of the common BIM library scope;
• Analysis of use cases and information requirements;
• Developing ontologies for establishing the relationships between key concepts;
• Testing and validating the BIM library;
• Definition of BIM use cases for building energy performance;
• Development of modelling process and guidelines;
• identification and application of pipelines and toolchains;
• Case studies of use cases;
• Evaluation of the common library, ontologies, and processes; and
• Identification of potentials and required future developments.

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex Operating Agent here:

Gerhard Zucker

• E: Click here

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EBC Annex 90 - Low Carbon, High Comfort Integrated Lighting

Status: Ongoing (2023 - 2026)

Operating Agents: Dr Jan de Boer

Objectives:

• Support the decarbonisation of lighting solutions and helping to bridge the gap between a component-centred viewpoint and design-oriented system approaches;
• Support the transition from purely focusing on energy to a life cycle assessment perspective;
• Given the rapidly-developing digitalization of buildings and lighting installations, contextualize their technology, design, and operational aspects, and add to the digital chain, such as better design processes and align these with the developing understanding of user needs;
• Bring together the different players involved through workshops and specific activities, and create added value by knowledge transfer into standardization, regulations, and building certification; and
• Foster the broad implementation of low carbon solutions, especially in developing countries, by promoting tailored low technology yet high impact solutions through demonstration, design guidelines, and workshops.

Deliverables:

The following project deliverables are planned: 

• To establish scenarios, strategies, roadmaps for low carbon lighting and passive solar including a survey on data sources, methods and regulations, a catalogue of scenarios, a simple tool to rate life cycle analysis and global warming potential, and design guidelines;
• A report on visual and non-visual requirements;
• Information material on new developments for non-visual aspects;
• A set of refactored Radiance core tools to support digitalized lighting solutions focusing on technology, design tools and processes;
• information material about ‘impact of densification on visual comfort and well-being’;
• A report on applications and case studies ‘low carbon daylighting and lighting solutions: practical applications’; and
• Promotion of highly efficient lighting solutions for Sunbelt Regions through workshops and production of a brochure. 

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex Operating Agent here:

Dr Jan de Boer

• E: Click here
• P: +49 711 / 970-3401

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EBC Annex 89 - Ways to Implement Net-zero Whole Life Carbon Buildings 

Status: Ongoing (2023 - 2027)

Operating Agents: Dr Alexander Passer

Objectives:

• Contribute to local, national and global efforts to accelearate and scale-up the transition of the building and real estate sector towards net zero whole of life cycle outcomes 
• Support key stakeholders and decision makers in developing and implementing effective Paris-goal compatible schemes and solutions. 

Deliverables: 

• Report on guidelines and recommendations on establishing carbon reduction paths and actions towards net zero whole life carbon buildings
• Report on guidelines for selection and application of assessment methods to estimate and determine Paris-goal compatible net zero whole life carbon status of buildings
• Report on enabling tools and instruments to increase net zero whole life carbon building implementation at national and regional level
• Report on enabling and disabling factors for implementation of net zero whole life carbon intitatives 

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex Operating Agent here:

Dr Alexander Passer

• E: Click here
  

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EBC Annex 88 - Evaluation and Demonstration of Actual Energy Efficiency of Heat Pump Systems in Buildings

Status: Ongoing (2022 - 2027)

Operating Agent: Dr Takao Sawachi

Objectives: 

• Developing literature review of test methods, monitoring methods and methods for energy calculations for heat pump systems, as well as existing design guidelines;
• Analysing and comparing existing proposals on testing methods of heat pump systems, and developing reommendations for testing actual energy efficiency;
• Developing manual on monitoring methods for energy efficiency and other characteristics of heat pump systems in buildings, and new data acquisition techniques on which to develop a database;
• Developing and validating alternative methods for predicting energy efficiency and energy use of heat pump systems in buildings under different conditions including partial load ratios, by utilising product information based on existing test standards and protocols; and
• Developing design guidelines for more energy efficient heat pump systems with demonstration data from applications in buildings. 

Deliverables:

The following official project deliverables are planned:

• A state of the art report on existing testing methods and monitoring methods, on methods and product parameters for estimating energy use by heat pump systems, and on existing design guidelines for heat pumpt systems;
• Recommendations of protocols to monitor actual characteristics and behaviour of heat pump systems;
• Recommendation of test methods and monitoring methods of heat pump systems;
• Database of monitoring results on heat pump systems in buildings; and
• Design guidelines of heat pump systems in buildings based on the evaluation of energy use and efficiency.

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex Operating Agent here:

Dr Takao Sawachi:

• E: Click here
• P: +81 29 864 2151

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EBC Annex 87 – Energy and Indoor Environmental Quality Performance of Personalised Environmental Control Systems

Status: Ongoing (2021 - 2026)

Operating Agents: Ongun Berk Kazanci and Bjarne Olesen 

Objectives:

The objective of this project is to establish design criteria and operation guidelines for 'personalised environmental control systems' (PECS) and to quantify the benefits regarding health, comfort and energy performance. This includes also control concepts and guidelines for operating PECS in spaces with general ambient systems for heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. The scope of the project includes all types of PECS for local heating, cooling, ventilation, air cleaning, lighting, and acoustics. It includes desktop systems, which are mounted on desks, or integrated into furniture, chairs with heating / cooling and ventilation, and other types that can be found during the study. It also includes wearables, where heating, cooling, and ventilation are included in garments or devices attached to an occupant's body.

Deliverables:

The main deliverables from the project are expected to be as follows:

• Guidebook on requirements for PECS;
• State-of-the-art report on PECS;
• Guidebook on PECS design, operation and implementation in buildings (including integration of PECS with ambient conditioning systems);
• Report on test methods for performance evaluation of PECS; and
• Universal criteria about requirements, characteristics, and performance of PECS to be used in national and international standards.

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex Operating Agent here:

Ongun Berk Kazanci:

• E: Click here
• P: +45 45 25 40 16

Bjarne Olesen:

• E: Click here

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EBC Annex 86 - Energy Efficient Indoor Air Quality Management in Residential Buildings

Status: Ongoing (2020 - 2025)

Operating Agent: Dr Jelle Laverge

Objectives: 

• Select metrics to assess energy performance and indoor environmental quality of an indoor air quality management strategy and study their aggregation;
• Improve the acceptability, control, installation quality and long-term reliability of indoor air quality management strategies by proposing specific metrics for these quality issues;
• Set up a coherent rating method for indoor air quality management strategy that takes into account the selected metrics;
• Identify or further develop the tools that will be needed to assist designers and managers of buildings in assessing the performance of an indoor air quality management strategy using the rating method;
• Gather existing or provide new standardized input data for the rating method;
• Study the potential use of smart materials as (an integral part of) an indoor air quality management strategy;
• Develop specific indoor air quality management solutions for retrofitting existing buildings;
• Benefit from recent advances in sensor technology and cloud-based data storage to systematically improve the quality of the implemented indoor air quality management strategies, ensure their operation and improve the quality of the rating method as well as the input data;
• Improve the availability of these data sources by exploring use cases for their providers; and
• Disseminate about each of the above findings.

Deliverables:

The following official project deliverables are planned:

• A literature list for energy efficient energy management;
• An open database with source data for the rating of indoor air quality management strategies;
• An overview report on methods and tools for the rating of indoor air quality management strategies; and
• A collection of case studies and demonstrations of energy efficient indoor air quality management strategies.

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex Operating Agent here:

Dr Jelle Laverge:

• E: Click here
• P: +32 9 264 37 49

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EBC Annex 85 - Indirect Evaporative Cooling

Status: Ongoing (2020 - 2025)

EBC Annex 83 – Positive Energy Districts

Francesco Guarino:

• E: Click here
• P: +3909123861926

Francesco Reda:

• E: Click here
• P: +358 40 8403680

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EBC Annex 82 – Energy Flexible Buildings Towards Resilient Low Carbon Energy Systems

Søren Østergaard Jensen:

• E: Click here
  
• P: +45 72 20 24 883

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EBC Annex 81 – Data-driven Smart Buildings

• E: Click here
  
• P: +61 2 4960 6070

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EBC Annex 80 – Resilient cooling

Status: Ongoing (2018-2023)

Operating agent:

• Dr Peter Holzer, IBRI, Austria

Objectives

• Assess benefits, potentials and performance indicators;
• Identify limitations and bottlenecks and provide guidance on design, performance calculation and system integration;
• Research towards implementation of emerging technologies;
• Extend boundaries of existing solutions, including user interaction and control strategies;
• Demonstrate the performance of resilient cooling solutions; and
• Develop recommendations for regulatory contexts.

Deliverables

The identified set of deliverables to be achieved by participants for this project includes:

• Comprehensive resilient cooling technology profiles including instructions for successful system design, implementation and operation;
• Specific resilient cooling R&D reports;
• Well documented case studies and success stories; and
• Recommendations for the integration of resilient cooling in legislation and standards.

You can find a full list of publications from this Annex here.

This Annex is in the reporting phase. if you are interested in their final results and publications, please contact the operating agent  below. 

Dr. Peter Holzer

• E: Click here
  
• P: +43 1 5811319 801

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EBC Annex 79 – Occupant-Centric Building Design and Operation

Status: Ongoing (2018 - 2023)

Operating agents:

• Dr Liam O’Brien, Carleton University, Canada
• Andreas Wagner, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Objectives:

The project objectives are to:

• Develop new scientific knowledge about adaptive occupant actions driven by multiple interdependent indoor environmental parameters;
• Understand interactions between occupants and building systems;
• Deploy ‘big data’ (e.g. data mining and machine learning) for the building sector based on various sources of building and occupant data as well as sensing technologies;
• Develop methods and guidelines and preparing standards for integrating occupant models in building design and operation; and
• Create focused case studies to test the new methods and models in different design and operation phases.

Deliverables

The planned outcomes from the project are as follows:

• Enhanced scientific knowledge about comfort-driven occupant interactions with building technologies. This includes methodological approaches to examine multistressor effects by environmental influences on human subjects;
• Informed insight into the potential of various data sources and sensing technologies, as well as applications of data-based methods for knowledge discovery and modelling of occupant behaviour;
• An open collaboration platform for data and software for supporting the use of data-mining methods and tools for applications within the area of occupant behaviour;
• A repository of advanced occupant behaviour models for digital planning environments;
• Proposals for standards and policy support for implementing occupant behaviour simulation in building design and operation practice. This also includes the integration of the models in modern digital planning (BIM) environments; and
• Guidelines on how to apply occupant models and occupant behaviour issues within building technologies, including user interfaces, as part of everyday design and planning processes.

This Annex is in the reporting phase. if you are interested in their final results and publications, please contact the operating agents  below. 

Liam O’Brien

• E:  Click here 

Andreas Wagner

• E:  Click here

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EBC Annex 05 - Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre

Status: Ongoing (1979 - 2026)

Operating agents:

• Prof. Dr. Arnold Janssens, University of Ghent, Belgium
• Dr Peter Wouters, INIVE eeig, Belgium

Objectives:

• To be the international centre on research and development in the fields of air infiltration and ventilation
• To provide a high quality international and technical information forum covering the areas of ventilation and air filtration in the built environment with respect to efficient energy use, good indoor air quality and thermal comfort
• To convene integrated and combined activities, resulting in different information tools, for example webinars, workshops, position papers, technical papers and so on.

Deliverables

• Ventilation Information Papers (VIPs), technical notes and contributed reports
• Publications database - AIRBASE
• Annual conference
• Workshops
• AIVC Website - a reference portal for ventilation related issues
• AIR Newsletter 

if you are interested in this Annex, please contact the operating agents below.

Prof. Dr. Arnold Janssens

• E:  Click here 

Dr Peter Wouters

• E:  Click here

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Working Group – Building Energy Codes

Status: Ongoing (2019-present)

Operating agent:

• Meredydd Evans, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 

Working Group overview

It is widely recognised that building energy codes (also known as building energy standards) are an effective policy tool for improving the energy efficiency of buildings, residential and commercial alike. However, even in communities and other jurisdictions with extensive history in this area, building energy codes are facing key issues, including:

• A need for faster and easier methods to check the compliance of buildings with the code;
• A need for greater reliability in the evaluation of code compliance;
• The substantial amount of time it takes for building codes to integrate research and technology breakthroughs, limiting the energy savings potential of building energy codes;
• The long-life of buildings and thus attending to the resulting challenge of incorporating energy efficiency into major retrofits of older buildings and the role of buildings energy codes in this;
• The need to meet ambitious policy objectives including zero net energy construction standards, passive ventilation, etc,; and
• The challenge of integrating various distributed energy resources including distributed solar, electric vehicles, and grid-interactive and flexible technologies.

In June 2019, the IEA EBC approved the creation of a Working Group (WG) dedicated to the consideration of building energy codes to foster stronger collaboration addressed at these issues.

Objectives

• To enhance the understanding of impactful options and practices regarding building energy codes across different countries;
• To provide methods for cross-national comparison that lead to meaningful information sharing; and
• To foster collaboration on building energy code issues that leads to enhanced building energy code programs by incorporating new issues and practices.

Outcomes

The work plan for this WG can be found here.

Publications

• Best Practices for Building Energy Codes Compliance, November 2021
• International Review of Energy Efficiency in Data Centres, March 2022
• Scan of Code Requirements to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions, June 2023

If you would like to learn more, you can contact the Working Group operating agent here:

Meredydd Evans 

• E: Click here

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