• Energy Research

Abstract Energy efficiency is priority number one in the EU in the last two years and efforts to achieve it have been made in various ways: through regulations, guidelines, good practice results, education and training. The buildings sector still is the larger consumer of energy, so many policies and national energy strategies have prepared ambitious goals to significantly decrease the sector’s energy consumption. An important step for the implementation of these strategies is the detection of the potential to energy renovate the existing building stock. This is the objective of this study; to present the ENERFUND tool which displays the current energy performance of a group of buildings and pinpoints the energy renovation potential for the selected buildings. An extensive study to identify the expectations of the future users was carried out, which provided valuable feedback for the features of the tool. The tool utilizes data from publicly available Energy Performance Certificates in the form of an interactive web map and combines them with other geo-referenced data and general information to allow for a rating of deep renovation opportunities. The paper explains the various features of the tool, and presents typical examples of the tool use for targeted stakeholder interests.

This study presents some preliminary results of an on-going European Project, RePublic-ZEB [1], where an analysis is conducted for identifying the cost optimal levels for the existing buildings, towards nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) performance. The analysis is applied to the reference building for an existing office building in five different countries: Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Greece. The evaluation tool uses a new cost optimization procedure based on a sequential search-optimization technique considering discrete options [2] is applied and the results will be presented in terms of optimal "package of measures", energy consumption and global costs. Finally a cross-country analysis will be performed. © 2015 The Authors. Peer Reviewed

AbstractThe inadequate thermal performance of existing buildings and ventilation strategies in buildings are currently the biggest challenges for the housing sector in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of addressing the sustainability and health of the built environment. Lack of adequate ventilation of indoor spaces causes poor air quality and a higher incidence of sick building syndrome (SBS), which is manifested by affecting the comfort and wellbeing in the living space. Ensuring high energy performance buildings and indoor air quality is efficiently approached by limiting emissions from sources or by partial neutralization of the pollutants, an important stage being the establishing specific emissions levels by performing monitoring studies of indoor air quality. In this context, the paper presents experimental studies focused on monitoring the concentrations of volatile organic compounds, inorganic compounds and particulate matter, from indoor air in residential spaces located in the urban area of Bucharest, Romania. The obtained results highlight the fact that in analysed spaces there are concentrations of pollutants whose values should be considered to improve the indoor air quality while addressing effectively the upgrade of energy performance in buildings.

Abstract European Directive (EU) 2018/844 amending Directives 2010/31/EU (EPBD) and 2012/27/EU (EED) aims at decarbonizing the European building stock. Energy efficiency measures and renewable energy use play an important role, especially regarding retrofit of existing buildings. Identification of retrofit opportunities and aggregation of projects to benefit from economy of scale are a precondition for the implementation of large-scale renovation projects. The ENERFUND project, funded by the HORIZON 2020 programme, provides data from Energy Performance Certificates according to EPBD publicly available in the form of a map and combines them with other geo-referenced data and general information to allow for the rating of deep renovation and carbon reduction opportunities. In this way, the tool assists in identifying retrofit opportunities and aggregation of projects for financing. It also assists in supply-side energy spatial planning, because it shows where energy consumption is likely to decrease due to economic renovation potentials. This contribution shows an overview of data available for thirteen European Member States. Data sources and differences regarding the type of data are explained, and challenges such as data quality issues and data protection concerns are discussed. It is demonstrated that the ENERFUND tool certainly assists in decarbonizing the European building stock, although some improvements are still necessary.

Abstract Despite transposing the 2010/31/EU Directive’s requirements creates legal responsibilities at the national level, the nearly Zero energy building (nZEB) principle does not appear to be widely adopted just yet in many nations. Previous studies have shown that the most significant barriers include determining the cost-effective ideal integration of the technologies appropriate for nZEB and the skills constraints faced by the construction industry. In order to meet the challenge of an efficient nZEB implementation, existing certification courses and training programs are still insufficient and inadequate, and hiring experienced specialists for building retrofit and new construction is not common practice. The traditionally conservative real estate industry is nevertheless hesitant to adopt the new building standards and practices, notably in the residential sector, despite a significant movement towards nZEB and extensive energy renovation. In this specific situation, this paper provides a preliminary analysis of the European project nZEB Ready Enhancing Market Readiness for nZEB Implementation, which aims to address the issue of the effective implementation of the nZEB and make use of new possibilities to act at the market level in order to boost the market’s readiness for a successful implementation of the nZEB and to encourage demand for energy-related skills among construction workers and specialists in the countries involved and beyond.

Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs) have received increased attention in recent years as a result of constant concerns for energy supply constraints, decreasing energy resources, increasing energy costs and rising impact of greenhouse gases on world climate. The EPBD recast directive [1] requests all new buildings to meet higher levels of performance than before, by exploring more the alternative energy supply systems available locally on a cost-efficiency basis and without prejudicing the occupants' comfort. To this end, after 2020, all new buildings should become "nearly zero-energy" and after 31 December 2018, the same requirement is applied for new buildings occupied and owned by public authorities. Furthermore, the EPBD recast states that MS must ensure that minimum energy performance requirements for buildings are set with a view to achieving cost-optimal levels according to the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 244/2012 of 16 January 2012. In this context, the authors of this paper, who are participants in the recent started European project RePublic-ZEB, are willing to share the initial findings from ongoing research work. Public buildings constitute a specific class of buildings that require a complex analysis from the statistic point of view taking into consideration the definition and typologies and other specific parameters related with. Thus, this paper will focus on the analysis of public building stocks in the countries covered by the project consortium with the view to define relevant parameters characterizing the reference public buildings that will be considered in the further analysis regarding the assessment of cost-effective packages of solutions towards nZEB levels of performance. A review of nZEB holistic approach, definitions and existing implemented policies in the participant countries, will be presented as well. © 2015 The Authors. Peer Reviewed