Annex 58 of the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme is an international research collaboration on the topic of ‘Reliable building energy performance characterization based on full scale dynamic measurements’. The goal of the Annex is to develop the necessary knowledge, tools and networks to achieve reliable in-situ dynamic testing and data analysis methods that can be used to characterize the actual energy performance of building components and whole buildings.

In Subtask 2, focus on ‘Optimizing full scale dynamic testing’, a procedure on how to realize a good test environment and test set-up was developed with expert contributions from the Annex 58 scientific committee. The aim was to arrive at a roadmap on the reliable methods used to measure the actual thermal performance of building components and whole buildings.  The roadmap (using the decision tree logic) is aimed at multiple audiences from both academic and industry backgrounds.

Since there are many different objectives when measuring the thermal performance of buildings or building components, the method considered most appropriate to address the options was to map out a decision tree to guide the user through defined options. The decision tree’s logic was informed by the scientific expert group of the annex, and is aimed at the users need to understand a building, component or element behavior. Where the user of the decision tree has a clear idea of the objective of the test to be carried out, the decision tree will provide information on test procedures and standards where information is available, and will provide a link or reference to the detail of the test.

Three main branches of the Decision Tree