Einstein

Thermal energy (heat and cold) demand in industry constitutes about 20 % of the total final energy demand in Europe. Space heating and cooling in buildings contributes another 27 % to the final energy demand. For optimising thermal energy supply, a holistic integral approach is required that includes possibilities of demand reduction by heat recovery and process integration, and by an intelligent combination of existing affordable heat (and cold) supply technologies, under the given economic constraints. The EINSTEIN methodology for thermal energy audit has been developed in the framework of the European (Intelligent Energy Europe - IEE) projects EINSTEIN and EINSTEIN-II. The EINSTEIN software tool, together with some of the complementary databases, is being developed as a free and open source software project available in all the IEE project partners' languages on the project web page or from any of the consortium members. We hope that this form of distribution will lead to a widespread use in the community of energy auditors, engineers, consultants and researchers dealing with thermal energy supply in large applications, and that the present version can be continuously enriched with new experiences and contributions from the community.