EPLabel

Home Page

The 'home' page is the main page of the site. Use the home page to link to all the other pages in the site, and to find out the latest news about the EPLabel Online system.

View the Home page here

About

The about page provides information on the background of the project, the project team and how it has been funded.

View the About page here

Public Sites Page

The sites listing shows all the sites that have been published by their authors to allow public viewing of the site. A site record shown on the public sites page shows information for a particular site year, a year of energy records. If subsequent years are published for the same site these will show up as separate records on the sites listing page.

Energy Labelling

Energy labels are a prerequisite for a low carbon economy... With nearly half of all Europe's CO2 emissions arising from buildings, the EPBD aims to raise the issue of building energy efficiency with everyone involved in the construction, alteration, sale or rental of property and with anyone visiting a public building. It will do this by requiring a building energy performance certificate to be made available on the sale or let of buildings and displayed prominently in larger public buildings.

Labelling offers a fantastic opportunity to make building energy and CO2 performance visible. Although initially for information only, raising awareness and disclosure is only the start. Given our addiction to high carbon lifestyles stoked by our growth-dependent economy, altruism is unlikely to be enough to initiate sufficient actions to reduce emissions by the 60 percent from current levels by 2050 target IPCC scientists say is necessary to stabilise CO2 levels in the atmosphere (let alone by the 85 percent necessary if the Contraction and Convergence plan is adopted).

The Stern Report hopes for a new age of low carbon energy supplies and ultra efficient end use, implying hardly a murmur on the global economy as we undergo the transition. Other commentators forecast a need for draconian carbon rations. At the very least, unless energy prices rise dramatically, it is likely that labelling buildings will be followed up by some tangible reward for better performance, such as reduced rates of Property Tax. Energy labels could provide the drivers or even the tipping point for a radical improvement of the energy efficiency of existing and new buildings; and help to transform markets as has already been demonstrated for some household electrical appliances.

View the public Sites listings here

Walkthrough

The Walkthrough pages provide a brief introduction to the main pages of the system which are used to generate energy calculations. The Walkthrough gives a general impression of the look and feel of the pages that are used and introduces some key terminology.

View the Walthrough pages here

Login/Registration/Logout

Help for the registration page, and for logging in and logging out.

Login

In order to login to use the system, users need to Register a profile, which includes contact details. The password to access this account will be emailed to them to ensure that a valid email address has been entered. If you wish to try or use EPLabel Online please register here.

Users are able to enter details of any number of buildings and can specify which if any are included on the published results page accessible by the public [ Published Sites ]

EPLabel Online reserves the right to make statistical analyses of any buildings that are entered but, other than on the published sites list, will only publish results in an anonymised format which ensures that the performance of an individual building can not be identified.

After successful login

Select the country or region where the building is located. This makes the assessment use the building types, benchmark data and language for that country - so the assessment results depend on which country is selected. The EPLabel project language (English) can also be used at any time without affecting the assessment, by clicking the button at the top of this page.

Registration and Login

The part of the web site where buildings are assessed is only accessible by registered system users. In order to login to use the system, users need to Register a profile, which includes contact details. After registration, each user is allocated a private account. The password to access this account will be emailed to them to ensure that a valid email address has been entered. Login to a private account is only possible by someone entering the applicable username and password; it can also be accessed by the system administrator. To preserve the security of a private account, users should not divulge their password to others.

Private accounts

In their private account, users can assemble their portfolio of buildings together with their year by year energy performance. In the spirit of EPBD Article 7.3, users are encouraged to 'publish' the energy performance of as many buildings as possible ie make the results available on the public side of EPLabel Online. It is possible to retract a decision to publish simply by clicking the 'unpublish' button on the Sites listing page.

Site Listing Page

The My Sites page provides a listing of all the sites defined under a particular login. From this page you can define new sites and click to view the details of any existing site.

Principles for "Locking" data

Each site may have one or more years of energy data allocated to it (site years). Sites and site years may have data at only one of two status levels:

Unlocked
Data is unconfirmed and subject to future revision

Locked
Data is confirmed and cannot be changed

Unlocked sites may only have unlocked data associated with them. Locked sites may have energy data of either locked or unlocked status.

The user is given the choice to lock the data for a Site year after completing the site year analysis. If it is the first site year to be locked for that site, then simultaneously the site description will also be locked.

Users may only generate a certificate for a site year with locked data.

Site

The site defines the building or set of buildings which is metered and will form the basis of the energy calculations provided by the EPLabel System.

Sites are made up of at least one part (a multi-function buiding may have several parts), may have 0 or more 'specials', or special energy uses that should be excluded from the energy calculation, and will have 1 or more 'Site Years' of associated energy use records.

Definition of 'Site'

EPLabel online calls a "site" the premises whose energy performance is to be assessed. A site can comprise a part of a building, a whole single building (which can have mixed uses) or a collection of buildings eg on a campus.

The energy performance of a site can be assessed for different years: the site year.

From this page you can define parts of a building in the case of a multi-use building (or add buildings in the case of a site-wide calculation), define special energy use areas, provide energy metrics on a yearly basis, and analyse this collection of data in a number of different ways.

Part

Site "Parts" are either the different parts of a multi-function building, or the different buildings on a site.

Parts should be defined by their sector type and subsector type.

Special

Specials are special energy uses that should be excluded from the general energy use of the site.

Notes:

Not a valid exclusion - for information only: this is a special energy use that is not sub-metered or calculated by an expert. Hence it is not acceptable to deduct it. Valid exclusion based on metered energy use: this is a special energy use that is sub-metered. Hence it is acceptable to deduct it. Valid exclusion - but not metered: this is a special energy use that is calculated by an expert. Hence it is acceptable to deduct it.

Site Year

A "Site Year" defines the energy use of a site for a particular year. Benchmark analysis is done on the basis of this annualised data.

Customising Energy Weighting Factors

Local energy weighting factors might be applicable on a site receiving local energy supplies directly. For example, if heating or cooling energy is supplied from district heating or district cooling, it would be appropriate to use approved weighting factors applicable to the sources of these supplies (subject to National guidelines). There may need to be an independent audit of the supplier's calculations to verify the weighting factors on an annual basis.

The system accommodates this possibility, as follows.

Before the site year energy performance analysis is carried out, the User must choose whether:

A. to use National or EU average values for the energy weighting factors and which type of weighting factor (eg CO2, primary energy, etc); or
B. to enter Local values for each source of energy supply.

If choice B is selected, the User must then select the type of local energy weighting factor to be used. Based on this choice, the system then shows a table of the energy carriers used during the site year being analysed, the 'default' values for their weighting factors and the Local values for their weighting factors, initially set at their default values.

The User then enters the value for any Local weighting factor which is different from the national/EU default and clicks Update for this value to be accepted.

An 'Accept' button at the bottom of the Local factors page allows the User to confirm the entries and, when clicked, the system goes to the analysis page where the Site Year Analysis will be on the basis of delivered energy weighted by Local factors.

The Local weighting factors that have been used are saved as a characteristic of that site year.

Site Analysis

The headline grade is determined by a comparison of the energy supplied to the building with benchmarks. This judges the building's impact on the national energy infrastructure or on national emissions. The building energy efficiency grades are determined by a comparison of the energy used by the building with benchmarks ie it takes into account any energy generated on site. This judges how much energy is used by the building and the scope for energy saving measures.

Benchmark values are adjusted (from National values) to the long-term climate for the climate zone of the building. The building's actual energy use is also adjusted (from the actual year's weather if available) to the long term climate for the climate zone of the building. These adjustments apply to heating energy and, for some countries also to cooling energy.

Special energy uses: quantified energy uses which are not included in the benchmark values for this type of building can be excluded from the Building Energy Use for its comparison with benchmarks.

To judge a building’s energy efficiency, one needs to know how much energy it uses, the building energy use (BEU). BEU takes account of the output from on-site active renewable energy sources. To calculate BEU, the weighting factors to be used for renewable energy carriers are those of the non-renewable energy carriers being displaced. More info at www.eplabel.org.