BUILD UP

The debate around the definition of nearly zero-energy buildings or NZEB crosses EU boundaries and involves the international technical and scientific community. Several EU and extra-EU governments have established ambitious policies and targets for zero-energy buildings (ZEBs) to become standard or commonplace. Unfortunately, because the initiatives have different definitions of the zero metric, and different energy consumption and production boundaries, direct comparison between the schemes is problematic.

Every month, BUILD UP highlights publications covering a specific topic. February’s Topic of the Month is: ‘Energy efficiency design tools’. The website is already open for contributions and BUILD UP’s editorial board is eager to receive your discussion papers, news and articles.

In collaboration with BUILD UP, EuroACE is now presenting the final version of its Guide to EPBD Implementation in a series of webinars. The third webinar in the series will take place on 13 February and will discuss the topic ‘Smart and technology-equipped buildings – new features from the amended EPBD’.

The survey will enable a better understanding of the solutions developed by architects, barriers to their implementation, and the drivers behind the choices of architects and clients. Consult the Commission’s letter of support for more details.

For energy efficiency to meet its 44 % share of greenhouse gas reductions required to deliver on the Paris Agreement, global investment rates must double between now and 2025, then double again from 2025 to 2040. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), on average, these investments repay three times over their asset lives in energy savings alone.

The CoNZEBs team has completed its identification of potential cost reductions in design and construction processes. Together, the scientific partners and housing organisations assessed the costs related to the design and planning phases according to the specific conditions which currently apply in the participating countries (Germany, Denmark, Italy and Slovenia).

Housing Europe has put together a unique comparative study in six European countries commissioned by Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) and L’Union Sociale pour l’Habitat (USH). It presents the financial frameworks, policies and measures that are in place to support the renovation of social, cooperative and public housing in the sample countries.

This paper describes the evolution of the thermal network and its applications for making simplified thermal models of buildings by means of thermal resistance (R) and capacitance (C). In the literature, there are several modelling schemes for buildings. Here, we investigate the advantages and disadvantages of thermal networks as well as proposed improvements.

The ExcEED project is aiming to collect data coming from new, modern and energy-efficient buildings. This data will be gathered and stored in the ExcEED database in order to use it to evaluate the buildings' performance. Furthermore, the database will help users to better design energy-efficient buildings and define innovative building construction policies.

A European study estimates that the demand for age-friendly homes in the upcoming years across the continent will reach 10 million. Homes4Life addresses this challenge by contributing to the development of a new European certification scheme.

The REVALUE project partners have delivered recommendations for key stakeholders on how best to ensure that energy efficiency is included in the building valuation process. Regulators and professional bodies are recognising the importance of energy efficiency in building stock.

This project aims to increase investment in energy-efficiency services in the building sector within the EU and to improve trust in service providers. This will be achieved by developing quality assessment criteria and implementing quality assurance schemes.

Funded by Horizon 2020, the RentalCal project (European Rental Housing Framework for the Profitability Calculation of Energetic Retrofitting Investments) aims to improve market transparency for energy-efficiency investments in the rental housing sector. It is achieving this by providing a benchmarking tool for transnational profitability assessments of such investments.

eQuest is a tool which provides professional-level results with an affordable level of effort. It enables users to perform detailed analysis of the current state-of-the-art building design technologies using today’s most sophisticated building-energy-use simulation technique.

The conference will bring together cities, industry and financial institutions to exchange good practices and successful solutions to common challenges.

The conference will gather researchers, professionals and practitioners from across the world to present and discuss the latest research on this topic.

The World Sustainable Energy Days bring together more than 650 delegates from 50 countries from industry, academia and the public sector to embrace the necessary transition to clean energy.

Exhibitors represent the complete global spectrum of sustainable construction products, for new build and refurbishment, residential and commercial projects.