As we all know the recast of EPBD has been approved in order to strengthen the energy performance requirements and to clarify some issues. There have been for example interpretations concerning the energy certificates and their visibility in the buildings.

In Finland it has not been mandatory to place energy certificates in a prominent place clearly visible to the public in public buildings. The Finnish official energy certificate is at the moment a mixture of asset rating and operational rating in existing buildings. The electricity from building user’s appliances is excluded from the consumption to be able to describe the building’s energy effi-ciency. This fulfils the spirit of the directive, but on the other hand does not show the effect of the energy saving measures made by the users.

This is why Helsinki decided to use Display® in our communication campaigns and as our “energy certificate”. Display is now in over 150 buildings on show.

The recast of EPBD will cause changes also in Finnish law and energy certificates. It will be mandatory in public buildings to place the energy certificate in a visible place. How useful this is, depends on the type of energy certificate and the utilisation of it as a tool for communication. This raises question – at least in Finland - should we have two “energy certificates”???!!!. One for constructors and one for the building managers and building users. From our experience Display® has completely fulfilled its task as a communication tool among building users and visitors.

We have heard that there might be possibility to use voluntary energy certificates. If EU approves this. We even heard that there would be a meeting in EU in March where voluntary energy certifi-cate will be discussed. I would like us all Display users to give our support to Display and Energy-Cities in possible discussions concerning voluntary energy certificates.

We in Helsinki stand for Display!