The set of standards and accompanying technical reports on the energy performance of buildings (set of EPB standards) have been prepared under a mandate given to CEN by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association (Mandate M/480, 2010), to support the EPBD.
The EPBD, the European Directive on the energy performance of buildings aims to promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings within the European Union, taking into account outdoor climatic and local conditions, as well as indoor climate requirements and cost-effectiveness (Article 1).
The Mandate M/480 was a follow up on the Mandate M/343 which had led to a first generation of EPB standards (2004-2008), in support of the first version of the EPBD (2003). This first generation was for a large part developed “bottom up”, in a very short time, using and adapting standards already existing under the various CEN (and some ISO) technical committees without a central guidance on the overall consistency and quality.
The mandate M/480 was issued as the recast of the EPBD raised the need to revisit already existing standards and reformulate and add standards so that they become on the one hand unambiguous and compatible, and on the other hand offer a clear and explicit overview of the choices, boundary conditions and input data that need to be defined at national or regional level. Such national or regional choices remain necessary, due to differences in climate, culture & building tradition, policy and legal frameworks in the EU member countries.
It is expected that the revision of the EPBD in 2022 will require a further updating of specific EPB standards.
European Commission – EPBD: Link
2022-04-02