Building envelope and building equipment

The savings potential in the building sector is enormous. That is why we have been creating new tools, such as the heat passport for buildings, since the 1990s, which we further developed into the renovation roadmap. We provide consulting and supervision for national instruments of building policy, but also for specific pilot projects on novel technology, municipal planning projects, and research on climate-friendly heat supply. Our simulation models allow us to quantify and spatially analyse the heat market.

Focus renovation roadmap

Sustainability in the building sector relies on the integration of long-term environmental challenges, architectural features, economic renovation strategies, and the wishes of the owners and users of buildings. The personalised renovation roadmap allows the projection of the “ultimate goal” angle onto specific buildings. Thus, it reduces anxiety over losing financial control during renovation, motivates with a clear structuring of renovation efforts into practical steps, and protects the owners’ renovation efforts from meeting dead ends.

The origin of the renovation roadmap is the fact that buildings are almost always renovated in stages. Building owners are often wary of a complete renovation. Incremental renovations may also lead to the desired goals, but careful planning and coordination of the individual measures is essential. Thus, renovation costs can be reduced, and the development of a strategy customised to suit both building and owner avoids lock-in effects.

Focus energy consulting and audits

Energy consulting is among the established tools for the improvement of efficiency potentials in Germany. Information transfer and personal support are pivotal to dispel reservations or misgivings, or resolve implementation impediments among clients. Thus, renovation measures may be initiated. Simultaneously, energy consulting allows the tailoring of concepts and remediation measures to the needs of individual clients, thus avoiding errors during implementation. ifeu has been pleased to provide support and expertise to energy consulting programmes since the early 1990s. Since,

  • we have been involved with the development of consulting programmes (e.g. for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations and for individual cities),
  • we have assessed the successful outcome of consulting services with evaluations (e.g. for the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, the Consumer Advice Centre NRW, BAFA, ASEW) including continuous development of standards for evaluation methodology,
  • we have been a driving force in development, in particular for the advancement of quality control (e.g. at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, councils, municipal utilities),
  • and we continue to observe the development of the energy consulting market (i.e. for “Bundesstelle für Energieeffizienz”).

Contact

Dr. Martin Pehnt

PhD, Dipl. Physiker (graduate in physics)
Scientific and Managing Director
+49 (0)6221 4767 0
martin.pehnt@ifeu.de

Projects

Fernwärmeleitung

Towards low flow temperatures: Making buildings ready for heat pumps and modern district heating

The study analyses the concept of low-temperature readiness on the basis of two case studies and examines how the concept is embedded in European building policy.

Sufficiency in the Building Sector

The aim of this project is to identify sufficiency approaches in the building sector and political and legal measures for their strategic integration and support.

Evaluation of energy consulting projects in the Augsburg region

On behalf of the district of Augsburg, ifeu evaluated the effects of four free initial energy advisory services offered by the district for citizens and businesses.

Policy Workshop Sufficiency II

Better quality of life, less environmental consumption - Policy Workshop Sufficiency II

How can the monthly information on heating and hot water consumption be prepared for consumers in such a way that it is comprehensible and motivates them to adopt energy-saving behavior?

DETECTIVE - Energy saving by digitalisation

How much electricity and heat can be saved through digitalisation? What opportunities and risks arise for users and what is the acceptance and net environmental balance?

Langfristszenarien für die Transformation des Energiesystems in Deutschland (Langfristszenarien 3)

Basiert das künftige Energiesystem auf Strom, Wasserstoff oder anderen synthetischen Brennstoffen? Die Weichen dafür werden heute gestellt. Die Szenarien werden mit einem komplexen Modellverbund in…

Energy consumption labelling for new air-conditioning and ventilation systems

How can the building stock be climate-neutral by 2050 at the latest? Air conditioning and ventilation systems, especially in non-residential buildings, consume considerable amounts of energy. They…

iBRoad - Individual Building Renovation Roadmaps

iBROAD intends to explore, design, develop and demonstrate the concept of individual building renovation roadmaps (iBROAD), as a tool outlining deep step-by-step renovation plans with customised…

EWärmeG

With the EWärmeG, the state of Baden-Württemberg passed the first state law of its kind in Germany in 2007. It came into force at the beginning of 2008 with the aim of increasing the share of…

Evaluation and perspectives of the market incentive scheme

The market incentive scheme has become established as a central funding tool for the area of the heat supply from renewable energy sources. ifeu has supported the programme since 2008, and is…

Energy and Climate Protection Goals 2030 in Baden-Württemberg

The project investigates all greenhouse gas emitters and sinks in Baden-Württemberg: energy industry, industry, buildings, mobility, agriculture and forestry, landuse. A target scenario was calculated…

Thermografie am Beispiel eines Einfamilienhauses

Evaluation of on-site energy consulting in North Rhine-Westphalia

ifeu and Kantar EMNID were commissioned to evaluate energy consulting in the ENeRWin project. The goal of the evaluation was to determine the effectiveness of the service “Energy consulting at your…

Transformation to a Greenhouse Gas Neutral and Resource Efficient Country

The project RTD analyzes transformation pathways towards a greenhouse gas neutral Germany in 2050 (95 % reduction compared to 1990) calculating different scenarios and resulting total emissions and…

Strategic development of the National Climate Action Initiative III

Future advances of the National Climate Protection Initiative should focus on the “100% climate protection” principle, including necessary funding initiatives.

Climate mitigation potential of building equipment and HVACR in buildings

The project aims to quantify potentials for the reduction of system energy expenditure in the German building stock. The calculations are based on the quantification of individual potentials for…

Information brochure on climate protection and energy efficiency

The brochure takes a clear and in-depth look at multiple aspects of energy efficiency as a key building block of climate protection, and also showcases some practical examples. It is designed as a…

Individual renovation roadmap

In collaboration with the German Energy Agency and the Passive House Institute, ifeu develops the renovation roadmap approach initially trialled in the state of Baden-Württemberg for implementation on…

Building efficiency strategy

How can the goal of a virtually climate-neutral building stock be realized by the year 2050? The “Building energy efficiency strategy (Energieeffizienzstrategie Gebäude, ESG)” adopted by the Federal…

Evaluation of on-site energy consultancy provided by the consumer advice centre for North Rhine-Westphalia (VZ NRW)

ifeu and TNS Emnid were jointly commissioned to evaluate the energy advisory service provided during the KEK project, which investigated specific issues relating to climate change and the energy…

Energy efficiency as a business model

How can Germany implement Article 7 of the European Efficiency Directive, which covers energy efficiency obligation schemes? Agora Energiewende commissioned ifeu and energy consulting company…

Potential of insulation

To which amount can the energy consumption in the building sector be lowered? Which heat consumption would result if the whole German building stock would be refurbished to the best possible standard?…

Further development of existing climate protection tools in the building sector

The aim of this project was to further develop the renovation roadmap tool in the context of existing and new building policy tools.

Renovation roadmap Baden-Württemberg

In a joint effort with many stakeholders, the renovation roadmap Baden-Württemberg was developed as a simple but convincing product for building renovation. It was then introduced in combination with…

National implementation of EU Energy Efficiency Directive in Germany

The European Energy Efficiency Directive requires member states to ensure that energy companies implement energy efficiency measures, or take similar action. ifeu developed an implementation concept…

Stromzähler

Evaluation of energy efficiency consulting for public utility companies

ifeu and TNS Emnid were jointly commissioned to evaluate the energy consulting provided by public utility companies. In light of the wide range of consulting services provided by public utility…

Strategic development of the national climate protection initiative II

The Federal Environment Ministry’s National Climate Protection Initiative (NKI) encompasses a wide range of funding and support schemes designed to promote climate protection amongst the target groups…

100 % heat from renewable energy?

Based on 400 renovated ambitious efficiency houses from the DENA database, an analysis of architectural, supply technical, environmental, legal, economic, urban development and acceptance aspects of…

Thermografie am Beispiel eines Einfamilienhauses

Energy services market survey

The project includes in-depth interviews of private households and businesses on services in the context of energy efficiency, both in the form of expert interviews following guidelines and…

Insulation restrictions

This study investigated 63 technically and economically motivated insulation restrictions. A survey of energy consultants and other parties involved in the construction industry was conducted to…

Strategies of the National Climate Initiative

The project analyses options to improve efficiency and climate protection in Germany in terms of the technical and economic potentials, the parties involved, the export prospects and political…