1.1 Scope
Building Energy Management Systems are used by building owners, operators and end-users to improve the energy performance of buildings. This is achieved by providing users with measurement, recording, trending, and alarming capabilities and diagnosis of unnecessary energy use. A wide range of Building Energy Management Systems are available, in a variety of different forms e.g., hardware, software or a combination of both. The Energy Technology List (ETL) Scheme aims to encourage the purchase of systems that can manage essential building plant and services, are interoperable and upgradeable.
Individual hardware components of a Building Energy Management System, such as sensors, valves and, meters, are not in scope of these criteria unless they can individually meet the eligibility and performance requirements described below.
1.2 Definitions
Using BS EN 15232-1: 2017[1] as a basis, Building Energy Management Systems are defined as a product (hardware and/or software) part of a Building Management System which provides energy management – measurement, recording, trending, and alarming capabilities and diagnosis of unnecessary energy use. It shall report information regarding energy consumption and indoor conditions of the building. Energy management supports requirements for documentation, controlling, monitoring, optimisation, determination and to support corrective action and preventive action to improve the energy performance of buildings.
Building Energy Management Systems shall conform to the class A functionality requirements from BS EN 15232-1: 2017. They shall manage heating, cooling, domestic hot water[2], ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and blinds, allowing different building plant and services to work together to save energy. They shall be interoperable, allowing the incorporation of third-party products, and be upgradeable, allowing updates to be incorporated such as security patches.
The ETL Scheme covers three categories of Building Energy Management Systems:
- Stand-alone hardware
- Software
- Combined hardware and software
Note, to be an effective Building Energy Management System, software products rely on other hardware such as Building Management Systems, controls hardware, metering or other hardware (e.g. related to Internet of Things).
To be eligible for inclusion on the ETL, systems shall meet the requirements as set out below.
1.3 Requirements
1.3.1 Eligibility requirements
To be eligible, systems shall:
- Manage building plant and services, including: heating, cooling, domestic hot water, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and blinds.
- Be interoperable by using published communication protocols.
- To ensure cybersecurity of BEMS, where appropriate:
- Systems shall be designed to be compatible with the security principles of the IEC 62443 standards suite.
- Systems connected via Internet Protocol shall comply with ETSI TS 303 645, notably ensuring software updates.
- Have an appropriate Conformity Assessment mark.
1.3.2 Functionality requirements
To be eligible, Building Energy Management Systems shall conform to the class A functionality requirements from BS EN 15232-1: 2017, namely:
- Report automatically captured data from meters or sensors at regular intervals in order to provide indoor conditions (e.g. temperature, meter values, etc.) and energy performance indicators.
- Provide and report trend functions and consumption determination
- Report analysis, performance evaluation and benchmarking
- Alarm functionality, with central indication of detected faults including diagnosis
- Setpoint management, with adaptation from a central point with frequent set back of user inputs, to ensure manual settings are temporary.
- Set reminders for users to regularly review, from a central point, the appropriateness of building system operations. Reminders shall be sent following a predefined schedule with variable preconditioning phases.
- BEMS with the capability to directly control building systems shall meet the criteria set out below in Table 1.1 as applicable:
Table1.1 ETL requirements for control features
| Type of equipment controlled | Relevant ETL eligibility criteria |
| HVAC equipment | HVAC Building Controls |
| Electrical lighting equipment | Lighting controls |
| Automatic monitoring and targeting equipment | Automatic Monitoring & Targeting (aM&T) Sub-metering Systems |
| Commercial refrigeration equipment | Refrigeration system controls |
| Two or more air compressors | Master controllers |
1.4 Verification for ETL Listing
There are no testing requirements, however manufacturers and suppliers shall provide technical specifications, sales brochures and/or instruction manuals to evidence the conformity of their systems against the definitions and eligibility requirements.
1.5 Conformity testing
Products listed on the ETL may be subject to the scheme’s conformity assessment programme in order to ensure listed models continue to meet the ETL requirements.
1.6 Review
1.6.1 Indicative review date
This specification is scheduled to be reviewed during the 2024/25 review cycle.
1.6.2 Illustrative future direction of the requirements
The next technical review will review the data gathered by the application and implementation of BEMS onto the ETL.
Further technical analysis may review criteria for inclusion of smart grid integration functions, management of local energy production assets, waste heat recovery and water flows. Future criteria will also review the need for BEMS to provide user-controlled facilities for scheduled and event-based export of stored data, using common data interchange formats.
[1] Energy Performance of Buildings. Impact of Building Automation, Controls and Building Management.
[2] Note, Domestic Hot Water, or DHW, is a commonly used acronym by industry to describe the provision of hot water – it is not used to denote the provision of hot water to domestic properties only.