Cost Optimality and/or Sustainability in our Building's Life

Abstract:

As energy efficiency is becoming an increasingly important feature, buildings are expected to comply with several criteria and requirements and these criteria are changed and extended with time. The Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and Commission on the energy performance of buildings and the Directive 2010/31/EU request Member States to apply minimum energy performance requirements. These minimum requirements are indeed applied all over the European Union and should be regularly reviewed. Our research aimed at clarifying whether optimum cost and/or energy efficiency represents the next step towards actual energy efficiency. The Directive brought forth an aspect that should have been prioritized long ago already: Are the construction and refurbishment of buildings in Europe economically feasible The methodology prescribed by the Directive leaves several questions open and provokes further research. The methodology uses costs only as the basis for examining energy consumption and emissions related to already existing, newly constructed or refurbished buildings or refurbishment options. Optimum cost does not necessarily correspond to optimum energy or environmental performance. The price of materials and equipment built in does not always reflect the energy built in or environmental advantages. Subsidies to promote energy efficiency may bias optimum costs. Viewing optimums from the broader aspect of energy consumption, proper results are only yielded by analyses completed for the entire life cycle of buildings. This way, we may decide which characteristics attribute more to a low energy and emission status, i.e. state-of-the-art construction technology or traditional, natural constructing methods such as those used for „conservative eco buildings.” [1]

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 899)
• Pages: 87-92
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.899.87
• Online since: February 2014
• Authors: Krisztina Severnyak*
• Keywords: Cost Optimality, Energy Efficiency, EPBD, Primary Energy, Subsidies, Sustainability

References

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[2] European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, Directive 2010/31/EU on the Energy Performance of Buildings (recast), (2010).

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[9] Information on http: /www. agt. bme. hu/tantargyak/bsc/bmeeoafag02/BMEEOAFAG02_ ea_06. pdf.

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DOI: 10.3403/30344395

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