The Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and Council on energy performance of buildings entered into force on 4th January 2003, setting the minimum requirements of energy performance. All Member States had to incorporate the requirements of the new directive in national legislation by January 2006 and build up relevant systems and measures to transpose and implement these requirements. The stage of Directive’s implementation in the countries of Southern Europe is reported because of the similar climatic conditions and the geographical location for a future enforcement in Greece, as the building code in Greece is still under development. As energy use in buildings accounts for about 40% of the final energy demand in the European Union, the application of building standards can achieve a reduction in electric energy consumption and therefore an increase in energy performance of buildings. A record of the electric energy consumption of office buildings in the four Prefectures of Crete is implemented aiming at a future energy saving, which may be obtained by either through increased efficiency or by reducing electric energy consumption.

abstract: The Urban Heat Island (UHI) has been known to have been around from as long as people have been urbanizing. The growth and conglomeration of cities in the past century has caused an increase in the intensity and impact of Urban Heat Island, causing significant changes to the micro-climate and causing imbalances in the temperature patterns of cities. The urban heat island (UHI) is a well established phenomenon and it has been attributed to the reduced heating loads and increased cooling loads, impacting the total energy consumption of affected buildings in all climatic regions. This thesis endeavors to understand the impact of the urban heat island on the typical buildings in the Phoenix Metropolitan region through an annual energy simulation process spanning through the years 1950 to 2005. Phoenix, as a representative city for the hot-arid cooling-dominated region, would be an interesting example to see how the reduction in heating energy consumption offsets the increased demand for cooling energy in the building. The commercial reference building models from the Department of Energy have been used to simulate commercial building stock, while for the residential stock a representative residential model prescribing to IECC 2006 standards will be used. The multiyear simulation process will bring forth the energy consumptions of various building typologies, thus highlighting differing impacts on the various building typologies. A vigorous analysis is performed to see the impact on the cooling loads annually, specifically during summer and summer nights, when the impact of the 'atmospheric canopy layer' - urban heat island (UHI) causes an increase in the summer night time minimum and night time average temperatures. This study also shows the disparity in results of annual simulations run utilizing a typical meteorological year (TMY) weather file, to that of the current recorded weather data. The under prediction due to the use of TMY would translate to higher or lower predicted energy savings in the future years, for changes made to the efficiencies of the cooling or heating systems and thermal performance of the built-forms. The change in energy usage patterns caused by higher cooling energy and lesser heating energy consumptions could influence future policies and energy conservation standards. This study could also be utilized to understand the impacts of the equipment sizing protocols currently adopted, equipment use and longevity and fuel swapping as heating cooling ratios change. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Architecture 2011

This thesis is devoted to the choice of materials suitable for construction building envelope and its influence on the price of the works. It evaluates the thermal insulating characteristics of the selected structures and monitors their impact on operating costs of the object.

La performance énergétique est un pilier pour réduire l'utilisation d'énergie non renouvelable, en plus de l'utilisation des énergies renouvelables. En fait, les bâtiments sont au cœur de la politique des performances énergétiques de l'UE puisque 40% de la consommation finale d'énergie et 36% des émissions de gaz à effet de serre provient des bureaux, magasins et autres bâtiments. Les bâtiments peuvent être considérés comme des systèmes dynamiques et le transfert de la chaleur dans les bâtiments peut être représenté en utilisant des modèles dynamiques. De cette façon, le transfert de la chaleur dans les bâtiments peut être décrit par des réseaux thermiques obtenus en utilisant la théorie des graphes et de la thermodynamique, et peuvent être déduits de l'équation de la chaleur classique. Les réseaux thermiques peuvent être exprimés comme un système d'équations différentielles et algébriques (DAE) qui peut être transformé en représentation d'état et obtenir un fonction de transfert à partir de laquelle un modèle autorégressif avec des variables exogènes (ARX) peut être obtenu. Ces différentes structures de modèle peuvent être utilisées pour identifier les paramètres physiques des réseaux thermiques, ce qui implique que la méthode peut être utilisée pour identifier la performance intrinsèque des bâtiments et aider à la réduction de la consommation d'énergie dans les bâtiments.Cela peut faciliter l'évaluation de la performance énergétique des bâtiments dans un cadre reproductible qui permet la comparaison entre différentes solutions constructives.Les principales contributions originales de cette thèse sont: 1) les réseaux thermiques sont présentées à partir de la théorie des graphes et de la thermodynamique, sans considérer l'analogie thermique-électrique; 2) l'équation classique de la chaleur est reliée explicitement avec un système de DAE (réseau thermique) par les éléments finis; 3) différentes transformations pour déduire des modèles du transfert de la chaleur avec signification physique, à partir de l'équation de la chaleur classique, sont présentées toutes ensemble; 4) les transformations entre les modèles sont effectuées à partir des réseaux thermiques jusqu’aux modèles autorégressifs avec des variables exogènes (ARX) et vice-versa; et 5) un critère de sélection de l'ordre du modèle par une analyse de fréquence des mesures est proposé. / Energy efficiency is one of the two pillars to decrease the use of non-renewable energy besides the use of renewables energies. In fact, buildings are central to the EU's energy efficiency policy, as nearly 40% of the final energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions take place in houses, offices, shops and other buildings. Buildings may be considered as dynamic systems and heat transfer in buildings may be represented using dynamic models. In this way, heat transfer in buildings may be described by thermal networks which may be stated considering graph theory and thermodynamics, and may be deduced from the classical heat equation. Thermal networks may be expressed as a system of linear differential algebraic equations (DAE) and the system of linear DAE may be transformed into a state-space representation from which an autoregressive model with exogenous (ARX) can be obtained. These different model structures may be used for identifying the physical parameters of thermal networks which implies that this methodology may be useful for identifying the intrinsic performance of buildings and tackling the reduction of non-renewable energy consumption in buildings. This may facilitate the assessment of energy efficiency of buildings within a reproducible framework which allows the comparison between different constructive solutions.The main original contributions of this dissertation are: 1) thermal networks are stated from graph theory and thermodynamics, leaving back the thermal-electrical analogy; 2) classical heat equation is connected explicitly to a system of DAE (thermal network) by using the finite elements; 3) the transformations for deducing heat transfer models with physical meaning from the classical heat equation are put altogether; 4) transformations between models may are done from thermal networks to autoregressive models with exogenous (ARX) and back; and 5) a criterion for selecting the order of the model by frequency analysis of measurements is proposed.

This thesis has been carried out on behalf of IV Produkt AB and intends to set an average ratio of thermal energy losses in apartment buildings that were built during the 1960-1990. This shall be derived by analyzing the total district energy consumption that has been divided into three parts: heat energy losses (the actual heating requirements), the heating of domestic hot water and heating energy consumption for the controlled ventilation. Three different residential areas that were built during the years 1962-1966 and one that was built in 1993 has been analyzed. All residential areas are located in Växjö urban and contains between four and six apartment buildings. The analyzed objects have a mechanical exhaust ventilation systems and district heating as the heating method. No own laboratory work or experiments have been done in this thesis, the calculations have been done on the basis of parameters from VEAB, interviews with property managers, and literature studies. By calculations, we have got a result that is reported in Chapter 6. The result is given as a thermal energy loss as a percentage of the total heat consumption. In this thesis there has also been a review of the rules on requirements for the specific energy consumptions in buildings, indoor environment and indoor temperature from the National Board of Housing and the National Board of Health and Welfare.

Στις χώρες της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης ο κτιριακός τομέας απορροφά περίπου το 40% της συνολικής ενεργειακής κατανάλωσης, γεγονός που καθιστά απαραίτητο το λειτουργικό και φιλικό προς το περιβάλλον σχεδιασμό των κτιρίων, παράλληλα με τον περιορισμό των συνολικών ενεργειακών αναγκών τους για την εξοικονόμηση ενέργειας. Όσον αφορά τα ήδη υπάρχοντα κτίρια, μπορούν να γίνουν διάφορες παρεμβάσεις ώστε να επιτευχθεί η μέγιστη δυνατή εξοικονόμηση ενέργειας. Από την άλλη, η Ε.Ε.,στα πλαίσια της βιώσιμης ανάπτυξης και της προστασίας του περιβάλλοντος, έχει θέσει ως στόχο για το 2020 τα καινούρια κτίρια να είναι μηδενικών εκπομπών διοξειδίου του άνθρακα. Για την υλοποίηση του στόχου αυτού, είναι αναγκαίος ο σχεδιασμός των κτιρίων σύμφωνα με τις αρχές της βιοκλιματικής αρχιτεκτονικής, για την ελαχιστοποίηση των ενεργειακών τους αναγκών αλλά και η εφαρμογή συστημάτων Ανανεώσιμων Πηγών Ενέργειας για την παραγωγή θερμικής και ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας και την ελαχιστοποίηση έτσι των εκπομπών CO2 στην ατμόσφαιρα από τα ορυκτά καύσιμα. Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία, αναπτύσσονται στρατηγικές που αποσκοπούν στην αρμονική ένταξη των κτιρίων στο φυσικό περιβάλλον, παρουσιάζονται τα θέματα εξοικονόμησης ενέργειας στα κτίρια, διατυπώνονται οι βασικές παράμετροι για την επίτευξη ολιστικής ενεργειακής κάλυψης των κτιρίων και την προετοιμασία του επόμενου βήματος σχετικά με την ενέργεια στα κτίρια για το έτος 2020 και δίνονται νέες τεχνολογικές λύσεις που αναπτύχθηκαν στο εργαστήριο ηλιακής ενέργειας, με σκοπό την βέλτιστη αξιοποίηση της ηλιακής ενέργειας και των άλλων ΑΠΕ στα κτίρια. Στα πλαίσια της πλήρους κάλυψης των κτιριακών ενεργειακών αναγκών από ΑΠΕ και της προώθησης των κτιρίων σχεδόν μηδενικής κατανάλωσης από συμβατικές ενεργειακές πηγές, μελετάται πειραματικά η συμβολή των φωτοβολταϊκών σε δυσμενή κλίση και προσανατολισμό. Εξετάζεται η συνεισφορά διάχυτων ανακλαστήρων στην ενεργειακή τους απόδοση, η επίδραση του υλικού της θερμομόνωσης και του περιορισμού των θερμικών απωλειών. Τέλος, εξετάζεται η αξιοποίηση κάθε τμήματος του κτιρίου που μπορεί να έχει θετική συμβολή στο ενεργειακό θέμα. Έτσι προτείνονται τρόποι τοποθέτησης φωτοβολταϊκών σε οριζόντιες και επικλινείς στέγες και στις προσόψεις των κτιρίων, με προσθήκη ανακλαστήρα όπου είναι δυνατό, που μπορούν να συνεισφέρουν στην επίτευξη μηδενικού ενεργειακού ισοζυγίου στα κτίρια. / In the countries of the European Union the building sector accounts for about 40% of the total energy consumption, so it is necessary that the buildings should be designed in a functional and environmentally-friendly way, in addition to the minimization of of the total energy needs to achieve energy savings. As for the existing buildings, they should be renovated so that maximum energy savings is achieved. On the other hand, the EU’s target for 2020 is that new buildings must be of zero carbon dioxide emissions. For the implementation of this goal, buildings should be designed according to the principles of bioclimatic architecture to minimize energy needs, but also systems of Renewable Energy Sources should be applied to produce thermal energy and electricity, in order to minimize carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. In the present thesis, strategies aiming to harmonic integration of buildings in the natural environment are developed, holistic energy saving aspects for buildings are presented, aspects regarding the next step to the target for 2020 are given, and some new designs of building integrated RES, investigated at the Solar Energy Laboratory, are suggested. Approaching the holistic contribution of the renewable energy sources (RES) to buildings for total cover of their energy demand, and the achievement of nearly zero energy buildings, the contribution of photovoltaics in disadvantageous inclination and azimuth angle is experimentally studied. The contribution of diffuse reflectors to pV’s energy efficiency, the impact of thermal insulation materials and the impact of limitating the thermal losses to PV’s operation, are studied as well. Furthermore, the use of every single part of the building in order to contribute to its energy supply, is considered. Designs for photovoltaic integration on horizontal and inclined roofs and facades are suggested, combined with booster reflector if possible, aiming to achieve zero energy balance of buildings.