European Project Auditac - Auditing of air-conditioning systems

This two-year project, largely funded by the European Commission through its 'Intelligent Energy, Europe' programme has just begun.

The scheme has participants from France (the project coordinators), UK, Slovenia, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Italy. Eurovent is also involved. The main UK contributor is the Welsh School of Architecture, supported by BRE and the Association of Building Engineers.

Details of the work-plan are still being developed but the overall objective is to increase take-up of system and building energy efficiency upgrades. This will be achieved through the development and usage of energy auditing procedures for air-conditioning systems along with case studies that demonstrate the achievable benefits.

The project currently identifies three types of procedure:

1. Inspection - Essentially the regulatory requirement of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, this process is most likely to identify easy to implement, low-cost 'quick-fix' measures. The project will review procedures and plans as a baseline for more thorough audit procedures.

2. General audit - Likely to be the main focus of the project, this process will incorporate procedures that can identify improvements to buildings (e.g. reducing loads by improved shading), systems and their operation beyond those accessible through inspection. Good practice procedures are likely to be developed for this.

3. Investment grade audit - This process will be carried out in order to convince investors (whether building owners or ESCOs) to invest in building or system upgrades. More specific costs and savings projections than can be provided by a general audit are necessary. These will be specific to each building, however, the project aims to develop guidelines on how this should be done.

As part of the project, a workshop in each participating country is proposed and eventually, the distribution of training and dissemination material.

Suggestions for case studies and workshop opportunities to engage the HVAC industry, along with any other support are welcome.

For more information, contact:

Ian Knight at the Welsh School of Architecture (Knight@Cardiff.ac.uk)
Roger Hitchin at BRE (hitchinr@bre.co.uk, 01923 664773) or
Gavin Dunn at the Association of Building Engineers (gavin.dunn@abe.org.uk, 01604 404121).