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 73 – Towards Net Zero Energy Public Resilient Communities;
• EBC Annex 72 – Assessing Life Cycle Related Environmental Impacts Caused by Buildings;
• EBC Annex 70 – Building Energy Epidemiology: Analysis of Real Building Energy Use at Scale;
• 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: : gerhard.zucker@ait.ac.at

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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

Further details on objectives and deliverables coming soon.

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:

1. 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;
2. Recommendations of protocols to monitor actual characteristics and behaviour of heat pump systems;
3. Recommendation of test methods and monitoring methods of heat pump systems;
4. Database of monitoring results on heat pump systems in buildings; and
5. 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:

1. A literature list for energy efficient energy management;
2. An open database with source data for the rating of indoor air quality management strategies;
3. An overview report on methods and tools for the rating of indoor air quality management strategies; and
4. 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

Pekka Tuominen:

• E: pekka.tuominen@vtt.fi
• P: +358 40 7345580

Francesco Reda:

• E: francesco.reda@vtt.fi
• P: +358 40 8403680

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

Søren Østergaard Jensen:

• E: sdj@teknologisk.dk
• P: +45 72 20 24 883

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EBC Annex 81 – Data-driven Smart Buildings

• E: stephen.d.white@csiro.au
  
• 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

Australian participants:

• Paul Cooper, University of Wollongong
• Peter Graham, GBPN
• Lu Aye, University of Melbourne
• PC Thomas, Team Catalyst
• Wendy Miller, QUT

Annex overview

Resilient cooling is used to denote low energy and low carbon cooling solutions that strengthen the ability of individuals - and our community as a whole - to withstand and prevent the thermal (and other) impacts of changes in global and local climates, particularly with respect to increasing ambient temperatures and the increasing frequency and severity of heat waves.

According to this definition, resilient cooling includes technologies and solutions that:

• Reduce externally induced heat gains to indoor environments;
• Offer personal comfort apart from space cooling;
• Remove heat from indoor environments; and
• Control the humidity of indoor environments.

The project is investigating resilient cooling applications against a variety of external parameters such as climate, building typologies, internal loads and occupancy profiles, various levels of BMS capabilities and automation, new buildings and retrofitting of existing buildings. Furthermore, the project is closely connected with activities such as Mission Innovation’s Challenge #7: Affordable Heating and Cooling of Buildings, the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme and the IEA Global Exchange on Efficiency: Cooling.

Objectives

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

Activities

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.

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex operating agent here:

Dr. Peter Holzer

• E: peter.holzer@building-research.at
• 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

Australian participants:

• CSIRO
  • Dr Dong Chen
• Deakin University
  • Dr Abdul-Manan Sadick
  • Amir Tabadkani
  • Dr Astrid Roetzel
  • Dr Hong Xian (Lily) Li
  • Sogol Khoshroonejad
  • Vanessa Whittem
• Monash University
  • Dr Jenny Zhou
• RMIT
  • Dr Flora Salim
  • Dr Mohammad Saiedur Rahaman
• University of Melbourne
  • Dr Masa Noguchi

ANNEX OVERVIEW

Previous research (for example resulting from EBC Annex 53) has identified the strong influence of occupants on building performance. Recently, EBC Annex 66 has provided a sound framework for experimentally studying and modelling  different behavioural actions, including the implementation of these models into simulation platforms. But, real operation of buildings shows that many such models do not represent the manifold human interactions with a building appropriately enough, and that there is no guidance for designers and building managers on how to apply occupant behaviour models in everyday practice. The purpose of this project is to provide new insights into comfort-related occupant  behaviour in buildings and its impact on building energy performance. An open collaboration platform for data and software is being created to support the use of ‘big data’ methods and advanced occupant behaviour models. It is further promoting the application of this knowledge in building design and operation processes by assisting decision making and by supporting practitioners. 

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.

ACTIVITIES

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.

Want to get involved? You can contact the Annex operating agents here:

Liam O’Brien

• E:  Click here 

Andreas Wagner

• E:  Click here

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EBC Annex 70 – Building Energy Epidemiology: Analysis of Real Building Energy Use at Scale

Status: Ongoing (2016-2023)

Operating agent:

• Dr. Ian Hamilton, Energy Institute, UK

Australian participants:

• University of Wollongong
  • Paul Cooper
  • Daniel Daly
  • Pascal Perez
• University of New South Wales
  • Deo Prasad
  • Stephen Summerhayes

Annex overview

In response to concerns about climate change, energy security and social equity, governments around the world are developing plans to dramatically reduce energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions, - or in the case of emerging economies - develop in less energy intensive ways. This transformation will require a raft of technology and policy interventions that, to be truly effective, will require comprehensive empirical evaluation.

This project specifically seeks to support decision-makers and investors in their efforts to transform to a low carbon and energy efficient building stock. This is to be achieved by focusing on developing best practice methods for collecting, accessing, analysing and developing models with empirical data of energy demand in buildings and communities.

^{Idealised operation of a national building data and stock model. Source: EBC Annex 70.}

Building energy epidemiology is the study of energy demand to improve the understanding of variations and causes of differences within an energy-consuming population. It considers the complex interactions between the physical and engineered systems, socioeconomic conditions, in addition to individual interactions and practices of occupants. The results will facilitate the use of empirical data in undertaking international energy performance comparisons, policy review exercises, national stock modelling and technology and product market assessments and impact analyses.

Objectives

1. Evaluating the scope for using real building energy use data at scale to inform policy making and to support industry in the development of low energy and low carbon solutions;
2. Establishing best practice in the methods used to collect and analyse data related to real building energy use, including building and occupant data; and
3. Comparing across the national approaches to developing building stock data sets, building stock models, and to addressing the energy performance gap in order to identify lessons that can be learned and shared.

Activities

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

• A registry on national building stock surveys and models (with actual data if available); and
• A series of best practice and information reports on international data, models and methods.

This Annex is close to maturity, but you can still contact the Annex operating agent if you would like to learn more:

Dr. Ian Hamilton

• E: i.hamilton@ucl.ac.uk

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EBC Annex 69 – Strategy and Practice of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Low Energy Buildings

Status: Ongoing (2014-2022)

Operating agents:

• Prof. Richard de Dear, University of Sydney, Australia
• Prof. Yingxin Zhu, Tsinghua University, China

Australian participants:

• Paul Cooper, University of Wollongong
• Dr Jungsoo Kim, University of Sydney

Annex overview

Reducing energy use and providing comfortable indoor environments for occupants are both key objectives of the building sector globally. However, establishing the appropriate balance between these competing issues is challenging. Is it possible to achieve thermal comfort in buildings without increasing energy use? To answer this, this project is focusing on:

• Creating a scientifically based explanation of the underlying mechanism of adaptive thermal comfort for people in buildings; and
• The application and evaluation of the thermal adaptation concept to reduce building energy consumption through design and control strategies.

^{Source: Rawal et. al, 2020, Personal comfort systems: A review on comfort, energy, and economics, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 214, DOI: 109858.}

The concept of adaptive thermal comfort is not new, but there are still existing problems to be solved in this field of research:

• Although the adaptive effect has been observed by many researchers, the mechanism of the adaptive process is still unclear, especially the psychological and behavioural influences;
• The thermal adaptation responses of people in diverse climatic regions can be quite different, which may result in different building design strategies and indoor environment solutions. Current understanding of occupants’ adaptive responses in different climate regions is still limited; and
• Apart from purely free-running buildings or airconditioned buildings, mixed-mode buildings (cooling / heating together with natural ventilation) are actually the most common type. However, in existing standards there are no evaluation criteria for this kind of building. Most clients refuse to accept low energy building design with an indoor thermal environment outside the comfort range defined in current standards.

Objectives

1. Establish a database with quantitative descriptions of occupant thermal adaption responses;
2. Develop new or improved indoor thermal environment criteria based on the adaptive thermal comfort concept;
3. Provide a basis for the creation or revision of indoor environment standards;
4. Propose passive building design strategies to achieve thermal comfort with low energy consumption; and
5. Provide guidelines for new cooling and heating devices based on perceived / individual control adaptation.

Activities

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

• Database with a user interface including information about human thermal reactions, together with occupant behaviour and building energy consumption;
• Model and criteria for the application of adaptive thermal comfort in buildings;
• Guidelines for low energy building design based on the adaptive thermal comfort concept; and
• Guidelines for personal thermal comfort systems in low energy buildings.

Outcomes

You can find a full list of Annex 69 publications here.

This Annex is close to maturity, but you can still contact the Annex operating agents if you would like to learn more:

Prof. Yingxin Zhu

• E: zhuyx@tsinghua.edu.cn

Prof. Richard de Dear

• E: richard.dedear@sydney.edu.au

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Working Group – Building Energy Codes

Status: Ongoing (2019-present)

Operating agents:

• David Nemtzow, US Department of Energy, USA
• Michael Donn, Victoria University, New Zealand

Australian participant:

• Stanford Harrison, Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources

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 draft work plan for this WG can be found here.

The first newsletter from this WG can be found here.

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

David Nemtzow

• E: david.nemtzow@ee.doe.gov

Michael Donn

• E: michael.donn@vuw.ac.nz

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