A comparison study of Irish and American building energy polices using building energy simulation

Buildings are major consumers of energy and are responsible for about 40% of total carbon emissions. Therefore there is large scope to reduce the impact buildings have on the environment through energy efficiency measures. Governments have been taking steps towards achieving more efficient buildings by implementing stricter energy use limits on buildings over the last number of years. Since there is no uniform building energy code how can different countries buildings establish how they are performing in relation to each other? Approximately 80% of the current building stock will still exist in 50 years\u27 time therefore greater attention needs to be paid to the energy standards that are applied to building retrofit projects, in order to ensure that the buildings of the future don\u27t have the same impact on the environment as existing buildings. This document presents the details of a study conducted to determine how American building energy standards compare to EU led Irish building regulations