The Display team, in partnership with members of the CYBER Display project, have produced 9 country reports and Powerpoint overviews. These documents highlight the possibilities for the adaptation of the Display® poster and its communication campaign to the national transposition of the EPBD in France, England & Wales, Slovenia, Portugal, Finland, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy and Lithuania. In these countries there is a huge diversity of approaches to producing energy certificates for existing public buildings. No two countries have the same system.

When comparing these 9 countries it is, first of all, wise to exclude Finland and Italy as neither yet have a compulsory system in place for existing public buildings. Of the remaining countries France, England & Wales, Ireland and Slovenia have chosen operational ratings to assess their public buildings.

Of these four, each is different :
- France and Slovenia have chosen a certification system that is valid for 10 years. Slovenia has a horizontal energy (final) and carbon rating system from Green on the left to Red on the right. France uses the ‘conventional’ A to G vertical rating for energy (primary) and carbon. Slovenia shows three consecutive annual results on their certificate and France uses a consumption average over three years.
- In Ireland, England & Wales the certificates are valid for a year. England & Wales use the conventional A to G rating but for energy only while Ireland has carbon and energy (primary) with a slightly adapted A to G scale including sub categories such as A1 to A3 and E1, E2 etc. Other than that the two systems are similar with a large number of building types and a national climate correction factor applied in each region.

Portugal, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have chosen asset ratings but once again each of their systems is completely different.
- The Czech and Lithuanian certificates are both valid for 10 years and based on the conventional A to G rating. In the Czech Republic certificates are only created when a building larger than 1000 square metres is refurbished. The asset rating calculation is based on all consumption apart from equipment and uses final energy. In Lithuania, the system uses primary energy and covers all energy consumption, including equipment. This makes this system potentially compatible with the Display operational rating system as was shown in Kaunas – where primary schools were compared. Display is then able to show the management rating of the building. In Portugal the system is very complicated and is linked to the size of the building’s heating/cooling system. In general, existing public buildings with a system greater than 25 kw of power have to produce a certificate that will be valid for 6 years. The certificate shows the calculation for primary energy and also for air quality. It carries a slight adjustment to the A to G scale, featuring additional A+ and B- options.

In conclusion one can see that national systems vary greatly and that it will be very complicated to adapt the Display calculation tool to all of these variants (especially asset ratings). Thus, new approaches to promote the communication aspect of Display® and not its calculation tool will need to be found. To see all the country reports please click here.