Standardized computer file format suggestion for information exchange focused on weather servers and utility companies

One of the main barriers when carrying out energy performance assessment of buildings is the acquisition of data related to:

• Historical weather data for the analysed period
• Actual energy use of the building for the analysed period

In order to avoid that each technician needs to post process these type of data, this ePANACEA’s outcome propose two standardised formats for both (weather and energy use data) in order to allow information exchange across EU. The format and structure for both files has been based on the W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD):

• epanaceaWeatherDataSchema10.xsd: following the W3C recommendations, it contains a proposal for a common format for the weather data used for building energy simulations.
• epanaceaEnergyDataSchema11.xsd: definition of the XML Schema for data exchange regarding actual energy use in order to complement Energy Performance Certification procedures