This thesis is a part of the major EU project EE-Highrise which is a part of the European 7th Framework Research Program (FP7-ENERGY). In order to demonstrate and test new technologies and concepts, a demo building has been constructed in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The approach during the development of the building has been to consider all its elements with the purpose to increase the energy efficiency and sustainability of the building. Umeå University’s objective is to develop regional specific models of the demo high-rise building. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate whether a simplified model of the high rise building, Eco Silver House, can meet the passive house classifications in four selected cities; Ljubljana, Sibenik, Umeå and Dubai and then to suggest improvements of the models for the different regions. Drawings of the building were provided along with an IFC file for construction of the model in PHPP. The simulation tool used for simulations, PHPP, contained all necessary tools for designing a properly functioning Passive House. By preparing an energy balance, the annual energy demand of the building was calculated based on input related to building characteristics. Results from the simulations have then been compared to the requirements for the German Passive House classification. The performance of the building in Umeå has also be compared to the Swedish passive house standards. Improvements to the climate shell and the ventilation system were after that examined depending on the results. It was shown that it is possible to construct regional specific models that fulfill the passive house requirements in three of four regions. The model achieved passive house standard without any additional energy efficiency measures in Ljubljana and Šibenik while a combination of measures was needed to fulfill all the criteria’s in Umeå. The Swedish requirements used for evaluation of the model in Sweden were easier to fulfill since they have been developed for the cold climate present in Umeå. Since no regional passive house classification was used to evaluate the performance of the model in Dubai the cooling and primary energy demand exceeded the limiting criteria’s. The energy efficiency measure with reduced window area had the greatest impact on heating and cooling demand in all climates. This measure should be included in all future models which also is suggested by parallel studies on similar models of the same building. The only climate where an increased U-value of the external envelope resulted in improved performance of the model was in Šibenik. For all the other climates where a lowered U-value was implemented did the overall performance improve. / EE-Highrise (European 7th Framework Research Program.

Byggandet av passivhus har ökat kraftigt under 2000-talet i Sverige. Dock har det inteutformats och byggts några studentbostäder i passivhus form ännu. Denna studie går ut påatt försöka utforma studentbostäder som uppfyller de svenska kraven för passivhus. Genomatt välja ut lämpligt material och komponenter, t ex. väggtyper, platta på mark ochfönstertyper redovisas olika beräkningar för energiförbrukning.I metoden till beräkningarna som genomfördes, där resultaten hamnar i jämförelse medvarandra, användes VIP-energy samt PHPP. Dessa är två olika beräkningsprogram för bl.a.energianvändning. Även olika varianter av byggnaden, som t ex. olika vädersträck, olikaantal våningar, samt olika antal boende i huset testas och beräknas.Resultatet blev tvårumslägenheter på 36 m² med en öppen och funktionell planlösning.Fönstrens placering har stor betydelse för energianvändningen. Detta beror på att fönsterhar mycket sämre u-värde än väggen, samt att det blir stora transmissionsförluster.Undersökningen visar att fasaden med flest fönster i nordlig riktning är sämst urenergisynpunkt. Personvärme, drifttider och ventilationsstyrning har också stor inverkan påresultatet då passivhus främst värms upp genom den energi som redan finns i huset. / This research is in its root about creating the first passive student house that fulfils theSwedish passive house criteria (FEBY). Once the relevant elements have been selected,the data will be obtained from calculations for energy consumption. The calculations will bedone in the two software's VIP-energy and PHPP, where the building will be tested invarious forms and types. The results will later on be compared with one another. Theresearch led to a two-room apartment with a square metre of 36, and the fact that theenergy consumption results are weak when the majority of the windows are on the northfacade. As passive houses heat up through already existing energy inside the house,human body heat, uptimes and ventilation control are all significant factors for the result.

Better management of water resources is a growing concern with increasing stress on natural resources. Despite technological improvements in the past decades, a method to instantaneously measure soil water flux remains elusive, especially at a resolution adequate for monitoring natural processes (i.e. 1 mm d-1). The objectives of this research were to evaluate and improve two emerging methods for water flux estimates, 1) streaming potential and 2) heat pulse measurements, as tools to perform at these low flux rates. Streaming potential measures a voltage between two electrodes resulting from water with charged particles generating a current as it flows between the charged surfaces of the soil. Heat pulse measurements, performed with a penta-needle heat pulse probe (PHPP), measure the transport rate and direction of a heat pulse as it propagates from a central needle to surrounding thermistors through soil. Water moving past this sensor carries heat and this allows estimation of water flux from measured heat flux. Streaming potential experimentation demonstrated a clear voltage response to low flow rates. Unfortunately, inconsistent results coupled with measurement complications – susceptibility to electromagnetic noise, drifting, etc. – led to difficulties when trying to establish a congruent relationship between flow rate and voltage behavior. We concluded that the necessary steps to potentially improve measurement consistency made streaming potential less desirable to pursue compared to other emerging tools for water flux measurements. Heat pulse work focused on modifying design parameters to improve low flux rate determination. We tested the effect of increasing heater needle diameter (from 2 mm to 5 mm), increasing heating time (from 8 to 24 and 40 seconds), and doubling heat input (from 120 W m-1 to 240 W m-1) in saturated sand. Results indicated that using larger heater needles and higher heat input improve flux estimation but increasing heating time resulted in marginal improvement. By using a PHPP with a 5 mm heater needle, 24 second heating time, and 240 W m-1 heating input, fluxes were resolved down to 1 cm d-1. Refinement of calibration procedures and inconsistencies between probes used must be resolved if measurement resolution is to be improved further.

As part of the EU project Energy Efficient Demo Multiresidential highrise Building (EE-highrise), this thesis work evaluates and changes the Slovenian Eco Silver House (ESH) high rise building model in order to see if it can be classifiable as a passive house in different European regions. The purpose of this thesis work was to evaluate if the ESH could meet the European and Swedish passive house classification in Sibernik, Ljubljana, Lund, Östersund, Sundsvall and Kiruna. The purpose was also to make a sensitivity analysis of different energy efficiency measures in the energy performance of the building. This analysis was conducted to understand which of the selected energy efficiency measures made the most significant improvements in the results. The measures included in the sensitivity analysis were the building envelopes wall insulation thickness, changing the window frames, altering the ventilation air duct length and width as well as increasing the air duct insulation thickness. Finally, simulations with solar panels on the roof of the ESH were carried out. For the European passive house classification, the study involved constructing the model in the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) and simulating each region and energy efficiency measures separately. PHPP is however made specifically for verifying buildings according to the European passive house standard. So the demands for the Swedish passive house classification cannot be calculated in the PHPP simulations. Because of this, the data available through PHPP was used to manually calculate the Swedish passive house requirements. The results showed that the original ESH model, was only passive house certifiable according to the European classification in Sibernik. When including the additional energy efficiency measures it was possible for the ESH to become passive house certifiable in Lund, Ljubljana and Sibernik. The Swedish passive house classification results suggests that the ESH may be passive house certifiable in Lund. Also, with additional energy efficiency measures the ESH may meet the passive house requirements in Sundsvall and Kiruna. However, all the passive house classification parameters could not be considered in this study. Accordingly, additional analysis are required to draw final conclusions on whether the ESH building could meet the Swedish passive house certification in the different Swedish climate zones. The conclusions drawn were that all the energy efficiency measures contribute to reducing the primary energy demand, heating demand and the heating load. However, these same energy efficiency measures would at the same time increase the cooling demand. Because of this, it was discussed that specific regional models should be made. Because some regional models might benefit from not including the energy efficiency measures used in this thesis at all. They might instead benefit from finding and implementing energy efficiency measures that reduce the cooling demand.

The topic of the thesis is a description of wooden building construction process from a design stage to a finished house. There is preciesly described the creation process of the specific building from the initial meeting with the client to a finished building including all follow-up and logistics processes. In the first part, the thesis focuses on a building placement locality, selection of a suitable structural system, and description of factual and time context. The next part of the work addresses the text documentation for buil-ding permits and the energy-appreciation of the building. Photographs, design documen-tation and manufacturing documentation can be found in the attachment part.

This thesis deals with the design of passive house, located on a specific building plot in the village Bohdalec in district Žďár nad Sázavou. The first part of thesis contains a theoretical basis for the general explanation of passive house construction. The second part sumarizes the actual design of a passive house, description of the constructions of the house and results of thermal evaluation and energy review of the designed house.

The application of retrofit options to existing heritage buildings has become one of the most interesting topics in construction. In Victoria, BC, Canada, only 4% of commercial or institutional heritage buildings have been upgraded to current building codes in the last 10 years. Remaining 96% buildings exist with poor energy performance characteristics and a risk to occupant safety in the event of a damaging earthquake. This study investigates the importance and benefits of simultaneous energy and seismic retrofitting of existing heritage buildings. It presents a case study for a building with identifiable heritage value, located in Victoria, BC, Canada, and analyzes five feasible options in terms of energy retrofitting and presents a solution for both seismic and energy upgrading. To this aim, the energy retrofit options are compared based on the amount of saved energy, annual heating demand and estimated costs. The seismic solution is designed based on the weakness and needs of the building, and cost-effectiveness. Finally, the best solution is selected for a building that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. This study shows that the integration of energy and seismic retrofitting of heritage buildings provides economic benefits to owners while improving energy savings and building safety. / Graduate / 2021-08-31

This thesis focuses on the design of a family house. It is strawbale house with wooden framework construction. As the foundation of the building is used crawlspace type. In the text part of this thesis is described procedure of designing the house, materials, which are used in this house, composition and construction of the building. The practical part consist of the draft of the strawbale house, drawings, documentation and other parts regarding about the design of the house.

This thesis discusses about the calculation of heat losses residential house by 4 floors with 15 residential units, which are compared in the software PROTECH TV and PHPP. Thanks designed quality building cover, the heat losses by transmission of the object are really low. The need of energy use for heating very influencing parameters like forced ventilation with heat recuperation and solar and internal profits of the apartment. With these profits for the climatic conditions program PHPP calculates automatically, but in TV software against these profits must be inserted manually.

På Hedlunda i Umeå finns Hedlunda förskola; en byggnad som innehåller förskoleverksamhet, ett storkök och en matsal. Byggnaden uppfördes 2014 och började nyttjas samma år. Byggnaden är projekterad av Sweco för att klara krav gällande allt från specialpedagogik till energi och miljö. Den är även certifierad enligt en internationell passivhusstandard. Syftet med examensarbetet är att granska om förskolan håller de energikrav den projekterats för, samt att jämföra byggnadens projekterade energianvändning med den i praktiken uppmätta. Det sistnämnda gjordes även för att utvärdera precisionen hos den projekterade energianvändningen. Energibehovet ställdes även i proportion till de gränsvärden för energikrav som används av andra energicertifieringar. Byggnaden simulerades i programmet IDA ICE, och de mätvärden som samlades in bearbetades i Microsoft Excel. Programmet PHPP användes även för att granska om förskolan uppfyllde de internationella passivhuskraven. Byggnaden klarar varken kravet för årlig energianvändning eller kravet för specifikt primärenergibehov. Båda dessa är krav inom den internationella passivhusstandarden. Det föregående överskrids med 14 %, och det senare med 4 %. Byggnaden klarar energikravet för den svenska passivhuscertifieringen med god marginal. Värdet på byggnadens specifika energianvändning skilde sig knappt alls mellan projekteringen och det uppmätta värdet. Tittar man dock på enskilda faktorer så skiljer sig de projekterade värdena av el och uppvärmning sig mot de uppmätta med större differenser. Störst differens återfinns i faktorn verksamhetsel som överskattades med 60 % i projekteringen. Byggnadens specifika energianvändning uppgick till ca 43 kWh /m2 år  vilket är lägre kraven de vanligaste energistandardena ställer, vilket innebär att byggnaden är osedvanligt energieffektiv. Om alla lokaler som fick bygglov i Sverige 2015 hade byggts med samma energiprestanda som denna byggnad så hade det gått åt 392 GWh /år , medan om de istället byggts enligt BBRs standard så hade energiåtgången blivit 1098 GWh /år  (exklusive verksamhetsel). Även om olika lokaler har olika behov och krav så ger det en fingervisning av besparingspotentialen. Syftet med byggnaden var att det skulle bli en förebild för framtida energisnåla projekt, vilket det också blev när Vegaskolan i Vännäs byggdes efter samma koncept. På det hela taget är Hedlunda förskola en byggnad med hög energiprestanda. / At Hedlunda in Umeå, there’s a building complex containing a combined preschool, canteen and catering kitchen. It was built in 2014 and the preschool started up the same year. Sweco projected the building to satisfy the requisites required for the international passive house certification. The building was also supposed to meet specific requirements for specialized pedagogy, and requirements for non-toxic building materials in preschools, amongst others. In this master thesis the building’s energy usage was studied to see if the building met the requested requirements, and how close the estimated energy demand was to the actual demand. The purchased energy was also compared to energy requirements used by other certification systems used in Sweden today. The building meets the international passive house requirement for the annual heating demand, but breaches the requirement for primary energy value by 4 %. The Swedish passive house requirement is met with a significant margin. The purchased energy per square meter was 43 kWh /m2 year , which differed only marginally from the projected value of 41 kWh /m2 year . It may seem as if it was a very good estimation of the purchased energy, but when the factors are studied individually there are differences among them that go up to 60 %. The purchased energy per square meter was lower than all of the other requirements in other energy certification systems which proves that this is a highly efficient building. The building was created with the main purpose of serving as a model for energy efficient buildings, and it has served its purpose since Vegaskolan in Vännäs was built within the same concept. All in all, Hedlunda preschool is a building with a very good energy performance. If all public buildings who gained building permit in 2015 in Sweden had been built with the same energy efficiency as Hedlunda preschool, then the total energy demand would be 392 GWh /year , whereas if they were built as the BBR-standard the corresponding energy demand would be 1098 GWh /year . This is just a rough estimation to give a hint of the amount of energy that can be saved.