Analysis of Zero energy buildings

 

Legal framework and standards

With increase of energy saving measures local and international standards in this field became issues of higher importance. While European Directive states overall goals for member states, the technical standards of the goals in a lot of cases are defined in different ways. In some countries standards are already defined (UK, Energy Efficiency and Code for Sustainable comes, CE 292). For European countries few different approaches exist, both drawn by public bodies (Österreichische Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen), state bodies (Österreichische Energieagentur; Klima:active) or private initiatives (Passivhaus Institut Deutshland).

As climate and energy data bases in Europe are quite different, the range of definitions may differ by country from country, and in most cases for the following reasons:

1.    The state goals towards Zero Carbon goals are not stated in technical terms, therefore detailed definitions are not developed (Latvia, for example);
2.    The data about emissions for Primary Energy production are not available, or available just in Universities  or for special projects;
3.    The data basis about Life Cycle Assessments for building materials are not developed for local building products and supply chains.
Regionally, definitions of Zero Carbon emission buildings are limited by the data and information available.

Therefore, in this document analysis the goals of European Union legislation will be introduced, example of country code (United Kingdom), and different methodologies compared, drawing conclusions about practical use. Read further