residential buildings

The air leakage impact on energy performance in buildings has already been broadly studied in USA, Canada and most European countries. However, there is a lack of knowledge in Mediterranean countries regarding airtightness. An extensive study has been carried out in order to characterize the envelope of the existing housing stock in Spain. Preliminary results of more than 401 dwellings tested are shown. The sample includes different typologies, year of construction and climate zones. Blower door tests were performed and thermal imaging was used to locate leakage paths.   

Based on a series of workshops, a Circadian House is defined as a house that is designed to support a healthy life for its occupants through a human-centric design. The workshops were held in 2012-2013 and defined 3 key principles and ten key factors to consider in the design of homes.

It has already been proved that air leakage causes a great impact in the energy performance of buildings in cold climates. In recent years, many studies have been carried out in northern Europe, US and Canada. Regulations in these countries establish maximum air leakage rates for the construction of new dwellings and the refurbishment of the existing ones. However, there is a lack of knowledge relating to the housing stock in Spain.

Since many years, several monitoring studies have shown that the quality and compliance of installed ventilation systems can be low. The recently developed Evaluation scheme in Belgium tries to tackle this problem, thanks to the mandatory Ventilation Performance Report of all new ventilation installations, to be delivered by a Ventilation Reporter recognised by a Third-Party control organisation. This factsheet describes the approach of this scheme, including the penalty scheme and the role of the actors involved.

Ductwork airtightness is an input parameter in the French energy performance calculation method for new buildings (RT 2012) which influences the energy performance rating. If the ductwork airtightness class used in the calculation is better than the default value (2.5*class A), the ductwork airtightness has to be justified in accordance with a third-party testing scheme operational since 2014. Furthermore, there is a minimum ductwork airtightness requirement set to leakage class A if the building applies for the Effinergie+ or BEPOS labels.

Systems providing space heating, ventilation, space cooling and/or domestic hot water (HVAC) to residential or commercial buildings are playing a major role in the building energy performance. Eurovent Certita Certification manages a voluntary certification of the performance of heating, ventilation and air conditioning products, under the European mark “Eurovent Certified Performance”. Such a certification increases confidence in the published performance data of products and provides an easier access to input data for calculation of a building’s energy performance.

Since 2006, the Effinergie certification has been a major market driver in France for energy efficiency initiatives in all building types, new and renovated. It has been a laboratory for the 2012 energy regulation in France, for instance, for the overall primary energy minimum requirements or for the mandatory justification of an envelope airtightness level. In the same vein, the Effinergie+ and Bepos labels operational since 2012 and 2013 experiment new requirements and methods, which will serve for the 2020 revision of the energy regulation.

Because of the relative complexity of the French method for calculating the energy performance of new buildings, the selection of input data for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems can be a challenge without any guidance.