Data estimation

Resource consumption data

Estimation of data is performed to fill data gaps in collected data. Estimation of data can be done by BuildingMinds, your organization, or a third party.

Prerequisites

If BuildingMinds is estimating data the estimation is based on the following reference data with the minimum data requirements listed below going from high data to low data quality.

Reference data

Minimum data requirements

Quality

Collected resource consumption data for 72 month

At least 50% of data for each month is available.

High

Energy performance certificates (EPCs)

The energy demand values are valid for the period to be estimated and electricity, heating demand, or final energy are listed separately in the certificate. EPCs based on energy demand and energy consumption can be used for the estimation.

Medium

Benchmark data

When no other reference data is available benchmark data is used. To estimate based on benchmark data the following information is necessary per building:

Low to medium

Process

BuildingMinds is estimating data once during the initial onboarding of your buildings with the following steps.

  1. Process available data into calendar months. Depending on the provided data the data is split or aggregated.

  2. Apply the vacancy normalization for periods the building was not fully occupied. Vacancy normalization is not performed if the vacancy rate is below 5%. For more information, see Vacancy normalization.

  3. Apply heating degree days for the building's location for heating energy consumption-related data. For more information, see Weather normalization.

  4. Identify data gaps that need estimation.

  5. Check if any collected data for 36 months before and 36 months after the month that needs estimation is available in the provided data set by your organization.

  6. If not, check if energy performance certificates are available for the period to be estimated.

  7. If not, benchmark data is used for the estimation.

Estimation with collected data

When collected data for 36 months before and after the data gap is available values are weighted and used for the estimation. The consumption value for the month furthest away from the month to be estimated gets weighted lowest, the month nearest to the missing month gets weighted the highest. The weighting factor for each month is calculated as follows.

Wm = Weighting factor for a month

Mback = Month looking back (usually 36 months)

Mdif = Difference of the month from the month with the missing value

The estimated value is determined by multiplying the weighting factor for the specific month with the collected resource consumption value and adding all weighted values together.

Estimation with energy performance certificates (EPCs)

When collected resource consumption data is not available for 72 months before and after the month which needs to be estimated, data from energy performance certificates is used to close the data gap.

EPCs based on energy demand or energy consumption can be used for the estimation. In case the total electricity consumption is not listed in the EPCs the total energy consumption value is split into heating energy and electrical energy based on the shares of the following table (see columns 5 and 6). If buildings are leased-in or leased-out the split between tenant and landlord electricity is based on the shares of the following table (see columns 3 and 4).

Country

Building type

Tenant electricity share

Landlord electricity share

Electricity share

Heating share

Heating source

Source

Austria

Non-residential

66%

34%

36%

64%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Belgium

Non-residential

66%

34%

39%

61%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Croatia

Non-residential

66%

34%

61%

39%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Bulgaria

Non-residential

66%

34%

66%

34%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Cyprus

Non-residential

66%

34%

71%

29%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Czech Rep.

Non-residential

66%

34%

39%

61%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Denmark

Non-residential

66%

34%

47%

53%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Estonia

Non-residential

66%

34%

50%

50%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Finland

Non-residential

66%

34%

55%

45%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

France

Non-residential

66%

34%

44%

56%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Germany

Non-residential

39%

61%

30%

70%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Greece

Non-residential

47%

53%

76%

24%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Hungary

Non-residential

50%

50%

33%

67%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Ireland

Non-residential

55%

45%

46%

54%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Italy

Non-residential

60%

40%

39%

61%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Latvia

Non-residential

66%

34%

37%

63%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Lithuania

Non-residential

66%

34%

46%

54%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Luxembourg

Non-residential

66%

34%

42%

58%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Malta

Non-residential

66%

34%

80%

20%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Netherlands

Non-residential

66%

34%

33%

67%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Poland

Non-residential

66%

34%

48%

52%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Portugal

Non-residential

66%

34%

58%

42%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Romania

Non-residential

66%

34%

33%

67%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Slovakia

Non-residential

66%

34%

30%

70%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Slovenia

Non-residential

66%

34%

52%

48%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Spain

Non-residential

74%

26%

69%

31%

Oil-based fuels

Operational measurment-GENERALI

Sweden

Non-residential

66%

34%

58%

42%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

UK

Non-residential

66%

34%

49%

51%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Switzerland

Non-residential

74%

26%

60%

40%

Oil-based fuels

SIA-Effizienzpfad Energie

Austria

Residential

88%

12%

6%

94%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Belgium

Residential

88%

12%

3%

97%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Croatia

Residential

88%

12%

6%

94%

Natural gas (unspecified)

https://keepwarmeurope.eu/countries-in-focus/croatia/english/

Bulgaria

Residential

88%

12%

14%

86%

Biomass

Entranze Odyssee

Cyprus

Residential

88%

12%

27%

73%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Czech Rep.

Residential

88%

12%

8%

92%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Denmark

Residential

88%

12%

3%

97%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

Estonia

Residential

88%

12%

3%

97%

Biomass

Entranze Odyssee

Finland

Residential

88%

12%

17%

83%

District heating

Entranze Odyssee

France

Residential

88%

12%

13%

87%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Germany

Residential

88%

12%

7%

93%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Greece

Residential

88%

12%

7%

93%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Hungary

Residential

88%

12%

4%

96%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Ireland

Residential

88%

12%

5%

95%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Italy

Residential

88%

12%

6%

94%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Latvia

Residential

88%

12%

1%

99%

Biomass

Entranze Odyssee

Lithuania

Residential

88%

12%

18%

82%

District heating

Eurostat

Luxembourg

Residential

88%

12%

5%

95%

Oil-based fuels

Entranze Odyssee

Malta

Residential

88%

12%

77%

23%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Statista

Netherlands

Residential

88%

12%

2%

98%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Poland

Residential

88%

12%

1%

99%

Coal, district heating

Entranze Odyssee

Portugal

Residential

88%

12%

19%

81%

Biomass

Entranze Odyssee

Romania

Residential

88%

12%

1%

99%

Biomass

Entranze Odyssee

Slovakia

Residential

88%

12%

3%

97%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Slovenia

Residential

88%

12%

1%

99%

Coal

https://keepwarmeurope.eu/countries-in-focus/slovenia/english/

Spain

Residential

88%

12%

1%

99%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Sweden

Residential

88%

12%

26%

74%

Biomass

Entranze Odyssee

UK

Residential

88%

12%

9%

91%

Natural gas (unspecified)

Entranze Odyssee

Switzerland

Residential

88%

12%

34%

66%

Oil-based fuels

SIA-Effizienzpfad Energie

Area measurement data

Carbon and energy intensity values are based on buildings area measurements provided by your organization. In case you can deliver only one area type, BuildingMinds applies the following conversion factors to determine the area measurement type necessary for sustainability calculations.

Note

All decimal numbers in this section are displayed with a decimal point.

Area type

Definition

Conversion factor

Integrated with sustainability calculations

Source

Gross floor area (GFA)

Floor area including external walls and internal walls

GFA = GIA / 0.95 (Industrial)

GFA = GIA / 0.90 (all other, including office, residential, retail, etc.)

yes

OPDB HIF BUD (2019): Attachment 6.3 - Development Appraisal Methodology

Gross internal area (GIA)

Floor area including internal walls, but excluding external walls

GIA = GFA * 0.90 (all other, including office, residential, retail, etc.)

GIA = GFA * 0.95 (Industrial)

yes

OPDB HIF BUD (2019): Attachment 6.3 - Development Appraisal Methodology

Rentable area (RA)

Area specified in the rental contract

RA = 0.545 * GFA (residential)

RA = 0.606 * GIA (residential)

yes

RA = 0.85 * GIA (office) → RA = 0.765 * GFA (office)

RA = 0.95 * GIA (all other commercial incl. industrial)

yes

OPDB HIF BUD (2019): Attachment 6.3 - Development Appraisal Methodology

Net room area (NRA)

Void spaces on a floor of a building excluding inner walls, outer walls, and shafts.

NRA = GFA * 0.83 (residential)

NRA = GFA * 0.87 (non-residential)

no

Energy reference area (ERA)

Heated and/or cooled area

ERA = 0.85 * GFA (non-residential buildings)

no

Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie

ERA = 1.2 * RA (residential)

no

§82 GEG

In case your organization has only rentable area data available for their buildings the common area ratio is applied from GRESB GRESB Real Estate Reference Guide, Appendix 3.