Closing the energy performance gap

The Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) and the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy have partnered to produce a research report about building energy performance. The report was commissioned as part of the IEA’s Building Energy Efficiency Taskforce (BEET).

Building energy efficiency has been identified as a cost-effective opportunity to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. A variety of policies are being implemented to harvest this efficiency potential. 

There are growing concerns, however, about the gap between predicted or expected energy consumption levels in buildings and the actual measured energy consumption in operation.

The energy performance gap has been identified as an important barrier in achieving building energy policy goals. Reports have pointed out that anticipated savings from key building efficiency policies, such as building codes, may need to be significantly discounted.

This is due to actual post-occupancy building energy consumption being higher than what had been predicted by building energy performance models.

The author of the report, Adam Hinge, manages Sustainable Energy Partnerships. He is involved with a variety of efforts working toward improving building energy performance around the US and globally. 

To celebrate the launch of the report, SBEnrc and the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy are hosting a webinar in January. It will include a brief summary of the report, a panel discussion and Q&A session.

The date is still being finalised for the webinar.

The report is available to download here, and you can register your interest for the webinar here.