Energy performance of residential buildings : projecting, monitoring and evaluating

Energy security and climate change mitigation have been discussed in Sweden since the oil crisis in the 1970s. Sweden has since then increased its share of renewable energy resources to reach the highest level among the EU member states, but is still among the countries with the highest primary energy use per capita. Not least because of that, increasing energy efficiency is important and it is part of the Swedish long term environmental objectives. Large potential for improving energy efficiency can be found in the building sector, mainly in the existing building stock but also in new constructions. Buildings hold high costs for construction, service and maintenance. Still, their energy efficiency and thermal performance are rarely validated after construction or renovation. As energy efficiency become an important aspects in building design there is a need for accurate tools for assessing the energy performance both before and after building construction. In this thesis criteria for energy efficiency in new residential buildings are studied. Several building design aspects are discussed with regards to final energy efficiency, energy supply-demand interactions and social aspects. The results of this thesis are based on energy modelling, energy measurements and one questionnaire survey. Several existing residential buildings were used as case studies. The results show that pre-occupancy calculations of specific final energy demand in residential buildings is too rough an indicator to explicitly steer towards lower final energy use in the building sector. Even post occupancy monitoring of specific final energy demand does not always provide a representative image of the energy efficiency of buildings and may result with large variation among buildings with similar thermal efficiency. A post occupancy method of assessing thermal efficiency of building fabrics using thermography is presented. The thermal efficiency of buildings can be increased by design with low shape factor. The shape factor was found to have a significant effect on the final energy demand of buildings and on the use of primary energy. In Nordic climates, atria in multi-storey apartment buildings is a design that have a potential to increase both energy efficiency (by lower shape factor) and enhance social interactions among the occupants