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The International Energy Performance of Buildings Conference and the 15th edition of the RCEPB Student Competition took place on June 8-9 in Bucharest, Romania. Under the slogan “To contribute together to the development of a sustainable and resilient built environment”, the event was hosted by the National Library of Romania, organized by the Order of Energy Auditors from Romania, the Association of Installation Engineers from Romania, UTCB and supported by EU-CONEXUS.

On this occasion, the National Library of Romania hosted energy assessors, architects, designers, representatives of the academic and research environment, students and young professionals, real estate developers and representatives of construction companies.

The Romanian Conference Energy Performance of Buildings is a multi-disciplinary international conference having in 2023 the following sessions:

• EPBD2023 “landscape” and implementation roadmap
• EU projects and “Fit for 55” green transition plan
• Building digitization, EU standards & software tools

Energy efficiency, RES use, NZEB programs and sustainable buildings are concepts used more and more in European Directives and national regulations. EU targets were established for the reduction of energy consumption and GHG emissions or for RES use in order to minimize the negative environmental and social impact of fossil fuels burning, to strengthen the energetic independence of MS, to reduce the energy invoices for oil and natural gas imports.

Therefore, papers on related topics were welcomed from all relevant disciplinary areas, ranging from new concepts and solutions, modelling, experiments, to computational simulation. On behalf of EU-CONEXUS, we had two delegates who presented their papers, namely:

• PARIS FOKAIDES – Frederick University Associate Professor, Presentation: “Operational Rating: A Key Tool for Achieving NZEBs and Development of a New CEN Standard”. Mr. Fokaides is Associate Professor at the School of Engineering of Frederick University, Cyprus, and a research mentor at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. In Frederick University, Paris is lecturer of the courses of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as the courses of Sustainable Energy Resources, and Energy Design of Buildings in the Master’s Programme of Energy Engineering, which he also coordinates.
• CHRISTIAN INARD – Head of Faculty La Rochelle Université, Presentation: “Building design towards adaptation to climate change: A sensitivity analysis”. Mr. Inard is Professor at La Rochelle University (France) since 1998. He is author or co-author of more than 130 international papers and communications and he supervised 30 PhDs. He is head of the joint laboratory for energy and environmental efficiency in cities (4EV LAB) at La Rochelle University & Editor of the Journal Energy and Buildings.

The conference provided a forum for:

• the exchange of the latest technical information
• the dissemination of the Romanian and international research results
• the presentation of the new developments in energy and environment
• the debate and shaping of future directions and priorities in sustainable development and energy security.

The main themes of the Student Competition, entitled “Strategies and Tools for NZEB and ZEB – Between Obligations and Possibilities”, that took place under the auspices of this conference were:

• Present and future sustainable buildingsPresent and future renewable sources
• Digitization and robotics in the built environment
• Decarbonisation and the circular economy in the built environment

The competition was addressed to Bachelor and Master degree students from all over Romania. Two UTCB teams were among the big winners:

• The team formed by – Iosif Ilieș, FII student – The project with the title “Implementation of geothermal energy solutions for a residential building using advanced computation”, carried out under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Eng. Tiberius Catalina
• The team formed by – Gabriela Pîrvu, FILS student and Eduard Theodoroviciu, FCCIA student – The project with the title “Design and implementation of a sustainable NZEB housing in the rural mountain environment”, carried out under the guidance of assistant university, dr.eng. Ioana Teodorescu

Congratulations to all UTCB participants and teams who won 1^st Place (Iosif Ilies) and the “Special Award for the Best Poster” (Gabriela Pîrvu and Eduard Theodoroviciu).

• Mihaela Chițu, Viorel Constantin – “Study of the eco-efficiency of an air-water heat pump”
• Gabriela Pîrvu, Eduard Theodoroviciu – “Design and implementation of a sustainable NZEB housing in the mountainous rural environment”
• Iosif Ilies – “Implementation of geothermal energy solutions for a residential building using advanced computation”, 1^st Place
• Gabriel-Timotei Ilies, Denis Simoniak – “Positive Energy District. A solution towards the transition to climate-neutral cities”, 2^nd Place
• Andrei-Ștefan Măgureanu – “5th Generation District Heating and Cooling: Overview of existing solutions and a case study for Cluj-Napoca”, 3^rd Place
• Iulia Perpelea – “Solar-Powered Decade: A Paradigm Shift in Energy Generation”
• Ovidiu Sandru – “Building plugins – Smart management add-ons for nZEB buildings”

More details about this event can be accesed here .