iSERV

The iSERVcmb project is about showing the practical operation and benefits of an automatic monitoring and feedback system, as now allowed for in the recast EPBD, applied to Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems in EU Member States (MS). It is an important project as previous work has indicated real savings of up to 60% are achievable in individual HVAC systems through the iSERVcmb project approach. Main objectives of iSERVcmb:

- To provide some reward to HVAC system owners/operators and manufacturers for addressing the energy efficiency of these systems in their operation and design.
- To establish that the continuous monitoring and benchmarking of HVAC processes will provide energy saving benefits equivalent to or better than those achievable by Physical Inspection alone.
- To produce benchmarks of energy consumption by HVAC systems against end use activities derived from measured data around Europe.

iSERV final results published

Highlights from iSERVcmb:

• The project recruited 330 buildings, comprising 2,831 HVAC systems, 7,685 HVAC components, 2,230 Meters, 11,173 Spaces, 72 Activity types and 1,551,638 m2 of floor area, from 20 EU Member States during the 2011 to 2014 project period.
• Applying the iSERVcmb process to these operational buildings helped achieve savings of up to 33% in a building's total electrical energy use – often for little capital outlay. Across all the buildings on the iSERVcmb database, the actual or projected annual energy savings were around 9% on average. In systems with more than a year’s data in the system an average annual saving of 18% of the electricity use were achieved.
• Measured ranges of energy consumption and power demands by HVAC component and end use activity have been published  by the project based on which Power Demand benchmarks were identified, which are needed for immediate diagnostic work in operational systems.
• The iSERVcmb process and procedures can be applied across all EU Member States without any regional amendments, though the Benchmarks used will need some regional amendments depending on the utility type, service and component.

Lessons learned:

1. There are virtually no buildings in Europe that fully understand and document their HVAC systems where they are more complicated than a heat source and heat distribution system. The iSERVcmb spreadsheet was developed to overcome this data gap as a mandatory precursor to understanding the monitoring data being collected.
2. The savings achieved from this approach are far higher than expected. This appears to be due to the approach allowing clarity in the energy use of the building as a whole. This provides the energy manager or operator with confidence to achieve savings beyond just those associated with the HVAC systems.
3. Very little money needs to be spent to achieve substantial energy and cost savings initially. The energy reductions can therefore be almost self-financing. Many early cost savings achieved to date pay for themselves many times over per year.
4. The predictions of achieved performance from the iSERVcmb process generally agree with the findings of system condition from concurrent Physical Inspections, meaning it can be used as at least an equivalent legislative approach to meeting the requirements of the EPBD.

The REHVA AC Inspection Task Force will work together with project coordinator Prof. Ian Knight on the integration of iSERVcmb results in the upcoming REHVA Guidebook on AC Inspection.

Download the iSERV Factsheet here!

REHVA Annual Meeting 2014 - Annual Conference "Energy Efficient, Smart and Healthy Buildings" - Düsseldorf, 28-30 April 2014

iSERV results and further exploitation were discussed at REHVA Annual Meeting 2014. Close to the project end, iSERVcmb was presented to REHVA Members and Supporters during the REHVA Annual Meeting and Conference. Project coordinator, Ian Knight, presented some final results of the H.E.R.O. monitoring and benchmarking tool, including HVAC system benchmarks from different EU countries. (download the presentation here) EU energy benchmarks were also published by Ian Knight in the REHVA Journal issue 3/2014 disseminated during the Annual Meeting.

The advantages and possible further use of the developed monitoring tool were also discussed in the REHVA Tash Force Workshop "Ventilation and AC inspections in Cold Climate countries". (download the presentations here) The presentations of experts from Nordic countries showed that there is a clear need for further practical guidance for member states including the ones considered as more advanced in this field, which have already implemented EPBD regulation on the monitoring of AC systems. In the REHVA Technical and Research Committee Meeting, it was agreed that the REHVA AC Inspection Task Force will include instructions and guidance about monitoring of AC systems based on iSERV in its upcoming AC Inspection Guidebook.

REHVA – iSERV joint seminar on Energy Effective Operation of HVAC Systems - 13 February 2014, Brussels

REHVA organised its 2014 Seminar together with the iSERV project consortium around the topic of “Energy Effective Operation of HVAC Systems” on February 13th 2014 at the Thon Hotel EU. (download the presentations here)
The seminar covered a wide range of topics: updates from high level EC speakers on EU policies related to buildings energy efficiency including the new financing opportunities; how to increase the energy efficiency of HVAC systems through monitoring; results of the iSERVcmb project and a discussion about their further exploitation from policy and industrial perspective.
Project Officer Pau Garcia Audí (EASME) pointed out the importance of iSERVcmb in improving energy efficiency: in order to convince end users to increase their energy efficiency EU policy makers have to speak the language of the non-professional user groups actually consuming the energy. To achieve this we need to be able to collect real energy data, to benchmark evidence based energy use and express energy saving opportunities in financial terms instead of metrics like kWh or primary energy. The H.E.R.O. tool developed by iSERV provides help in reaching this goals.

June 2013: Workshop "iSERVcmb: The Practical Benchmarking of HVAC Systems Energy Efficiency in Use"

Chair: Ian Knight, UK; Co-Chair Zoltan Magyar, HU

The workshop presented iSERV’s physical parameter based benchmarking approach for assessing the energy performance of operational HVAC systems. The findings to date were supported by monitored energy data from HVAC components in European buildings.

Workshop participants (manufacturers, professionals, and scientists) debated the pros and cons of the approach as an assessment procedure for the energy efficiency of a building’s technical systems, as allowed in the recast EPBD. The lively discussions were worthwhile and valuable for the next stage of the project.

A report about the workshop will be published in a printed CLIMA 2013 conference booklet and sent to all participants.

Download the project flyer.

This project is supported by the European Commission under IEE - II