IEA EBC Annex 70 – Building Energy Epidemiology – Analysis of real building energy use at scale

The shift to a low carbon built environment will require both a step change in the energy performance of buildings alongside more efficient provision of energy services, and a massive decarbonisation of the energy used. By introducing a new approach which seeks to describe the drivers of the demand for energy, its sources and fuels, services and uses, practices and norms, across the interacting sectors and actors within the built environment, the emerging field of energy epidemiology has been defined.

However, to support the development, implementation and on-going evaluation of energy demand policy, a strong evidence base is needed to identify associations and establish underlying causes behind outcomes and variations in end-use energy demand within the population. IEA EBC Annex 70 focuses on the analyses of real building energy use at scale and the emerging field of building energy epidemiology, which seeks to develop robust approaches to such analyses.

The purpose of this Annex is to support member countries in the task of developing realistic transition pathways to dramatic reductions in energy use and carbon emissions associated with their buildings by:

• 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,
• Establishing best practice in the methods used for gathering and analysing real building energy use data, and
• Evaluating the scope for using real building energy use data at scale to inform policy making and industry in the development of low energy and low carbon solutions.

The scope of the Annex will include:

• Engaging with government, industry and technology manufacturers in order to identify user requirements for data and information;
• Researching aspects associated with empirical building and energy use data for both the residential and non-residential building stock;
• Developing best practice for analysing and reporting building and energy use data; Developing metrics and performing international comparisons of building stocks and their energy use.

The results will facilitate the use of empirical energy and building stock data in undertaking international energy performance comparisons, policy review exercises, national stock modelling and technology and product market assessments and impact analyses.