As a general rule, CEN and ISO standards as such do not impose any regulation. Laws and regulations may refer to standards, because standards provide harmonized specifications (e.g. terminology, key characteristics) and harmonized methods for tests or calculations.
The EPB standards contain methodologies to assess the EP, and specifications of EP characteristics, including EP indicators, that can used to compare against benchmarks. These benchmarks include overall and partial minimum1) EP requirements, such as the Renewable Energy Ratio (RER) or the thermal insulation level.
See EN ISO 52003-1, EN ISO 52018-1 (and accompanying technical reports).
The European Commission’s proposal for the revision of the EPBD (Dec.2021) introduced EU–wide mandatory -so called- minimum energy performance standards (MEPS). MEPS are rules that require specific buildings to meet a minimum energy performance requirement. Unfortunately this may lead to confusion with (ISO, CEN) standards that describe a (standard) specification or methodology.
1): The term “minimum” as in ‘minimum EP requirements’ and in MEPS is short for ‘minimum level’. For instance a minimum thermal insulation level, or a maximum non-renewable primary energy use.
2022-02-04