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Over the last decades, strong focus has been placed on the energy efficiency of buildings; not least school buildings. Energy performance (EP) of buildings is nowadays in principle described by one single indicator based on purchased energy in kWh/year.m2. Another important building performance aspect is the indoor environmental quality. This study’s overarching goal is to identify school buildings with a good balance between energy performance and indoor environment. Thus, this paper investigates possible correlations between information given in energy performance certificates (EPCs/e.g. energy use, year of construction, type of ventilation) and measured indoor environmental parameters. The work comprises investigation of approximately 20 school buildings with different ventilation systems in Gothenburg. In-situ investigations of the buildings’ properties and ventilation systems were conducted. Indoor environmental parameters were recorded during one week in each classroom. In this paper, indoor temperature, absolute humidity added indoors and CO2 concentration data are compared with the corresponding school’s energy performance data and ventilation type. Results suggest that mechanically ventilated buildings have clearer relationships between energy performance, building indicators and measured indoor environment. For buildings such as naturally ventilated, the relationships are usually weak, and the values spread over much wider ranges.

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Energy performance certificates are valuable sources of information about buildings. They are primarily used to assess the buildings’ energy performance, however the data included can also be used for building stock description or analysis from different perspectives. School buildings account for a substantial part of the Swedish public building stock and represent a great opportunity for implementation of energy saving strategies. To improve the energy efficiency, it is first important to analyse and understand the current energy use and identify the key factors responsible for most of the energy use. In Sweden, data used for EPC compilation are in most cases real measured data opposite to other European countries where EPC comprises calculated data practices. Therefore, the energy performance value provides a much more realistic representation of the building energy use. This study analyses certain aspects of school buildings’ energy performance using data available in EPCs, such as year of construction, floor area, heat supply systems and ventilation system. Comparison with data from some other European countries is also presented. The data which could be included in the certificate to extend the potential of EPC use in other areas, such as evaluation of indoor environmental quality, is also discussed.