Towards major impact on energy efficiency with KNOWnNEBs

KNOWnNEBs is a Life EU-funded project that aims to accelerate the uptake of energy efficiency (EE) measures thus increasing EE investments and sustainable actions. Focusing on the primary tool for identifying and evaluating barriers to energy efficiency – the energy audit – the consortium intends to improve current practices, by quantifying the value of NON-ENERGY BENEFITS (NEBs) and integrating it into energy efficiency calculations.  

Current energy audits only report on direct energy cost savings, not considering NEBs, such as improved product quality, space comfort, increased productivity, reduced maintenance related downtime, and other significant benefits. This leads to energy audits underestimating the true value of energy efficiency indicators and neglecting impactful measures which could increase EE investments and accelerate the implementation of sustainable actions.  

The KNOWnNEBs consortium consists of experts and academics from 9 European countries, and they are determined to demonstrate the value of NEBs and change the perception of energy auditors, consulting companies, and policy makers by conducting interviews and surveys to find out what needs to be facilitated to adjust the energy auditing practices. 

Results

One of the project results, the overview of energy auditing practices at enterprises, had as main objective to gather and organise information regarding current practices of energy auditing and NEBs associated with measures recommended within the energy audits.

In the first part the current auditing practices are reviewed on European and national levels.  

The second part gathers and shows the existing calculation methodologies, standards and available tools existing calculation methodologies, relevant European and international standards such as EN 16247 family standards as well as calculation methodologies and approaches used in energy audits of enterprises.  

In the third part the implementation strategies are explored in the target sector, which is based on face-to-face interviews and online surveys. This part aims to gather information regarding the actual experiences in companies which includes the whole process from energy audit to implementation of measures.  

The main outcome are information on considerations and barriers which companies face to uptake the recommendations from energy audits and the list of suggested energy efficiency measures which are implemented most frequently.

To read more about the outcomes, the full document can be downloaded here.