To assess the overall energy performance of a building, the European Commission has established a set of standards and accompanying technical reports to support the EPBD (mandate M/480 to the European Committee for Standardisation, CEN 2012-2017). These standards are called the energy performance of buildings standards or "set of EPB standards".
All of these standards have been developed by CEN (Europe). And several of them, including the core set mentioned in the European Directive (EPBD:2018, Annex 1), have been developed in collaboration with ISO (global). Consequently, these EN ISO standards are applicable at worldwide level. Others are at this moment only available in Europe (EN standards).
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Development Context
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).
Purpose of Mandate M/480
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 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.
Historical Context
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).
M/480 was inspired by the Recommendations from the EU CENSE project (2004-2008).
Global Reach of EPB Standards
The development and implementation of EPB standards extends beyond European borders
European Foundation
Developed across five specialized CEN Technical Committees, providing the foundation for energy performance assessment in buildings.
Cross-Continental Coordination
The CTL expert group ensured consistency in approach and technical details across all standards during the M/480 project (2011-2016).
Worldwide Application
Key standards like EN ISO 52000-1 were developed through global ISO collaboration, making them applicable worldwide.