Compliance frameworks

Since many years, several monitoring studies have shown that the quality and compliance of installed ventilation systems can be low. The recently developed Evaluation scheme in Belgium tries to tackle this problem, thanks to the mandatory Ventilation Performance Report of all new ventilation installations, to be delivered by a Ventilation Reporter recognised by a Third-Party control organisation. This factsheet describes the approach of this scheme, including the penalty scheme and the role of the actors involved.

Ductwork airtightness is an input parameter in the French energy performance calculation method for new buildings (RT 2012) which influences the energy performance rating. If the ductwork airtightness class used in the calculation is better than the default value (2.5*class A), the ductwork airtightness has to be justified in accordance with a third-party testing scheme operational since 2014. Furthermore, there is a minimum ductwork airtightness requirement set to leakage class A if the building applies for the Effinergie+ or BEPOS labels.

Since 2006, the Effinergie certification has been a major market driver in France for energy efficiency initiatives in all building types, new and renovated. It has been a laboratory for the 2012 energy regulation in France, for instance, for the overall primary energy minimum requirements or for the mandatory justification of an envelope airtightness level. In the same vein, the Effinergie+ and Bepos labels operational since 2012 and 2013 experiment new requirements and methods, which will serve for the 2020 revision of the energy regulation.

Since 2006, there has been a significant reward in the French energy regulations for good airtightness, which has been combined with a minimum requirement for residential buildings in the 2012 version of the regulation. Airtightness test results show that the average building airtightness performance has improved by nearly 50% in single- and multi-family buildings since 2006 and now stabilises below the minimum requirements around q50 = 2.8 m³/h per m² of envelope area, excluding lowest floor (or about n50 = 1.8 h^-1).

Regulatory compliance checks on samples of residential ventilation systems are operational in France. The analysis of their results shows a significant rate of non-compliance with the ventilation regulation (rate on the order of 50%).