New standard to improve energy performance of historic buildings

Maintaining the exterior of a historic building while raising energy efficiency is not necessarily a contradiction. The new EN 16883:2017 standard, Conservation of cultural heritage, provides guidance on how to improve the energy performance of historically significant structures. A group made up of 45 experts from 12 countries had mapped out the guidelines for six years before they were published by the European Committee for Standardisation in June 2017. Researchers working for the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, also known as IEA SHC, are now on the lookout for suitable case studies to evaluate processes and assessments proposed in the standard. The photo shows a convent in Vienna, Austria, which was built in 1904 and renovated in 2013.

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