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Guidelines & Technical Modules > Key Message: Building Envelope

Heating, cooling and lighting systems have major impacts on the energy consumption in non-residential buildings. This energy demand supposed to create thermal and visual comfort in the indoor environment. The Envelope System strongly affects the energy demand of these active systems, since it regulates heating and cooling loads and daylight availability. With the renovation and refurbishment of the Building Envelope major energy savings can be achieved reducing thermal and electric loads. In some cases high performances Envelope Systems can completely avoid the use of active systems. Depending on existing performances of the envelope in your non-residential buildings, energy savings up to 50% may be achieved by means of an overall retrofit action. For instance adopting combined actions on various envelope components or moving to a complete renovation of the façade as far as the construction of a new “second skin”.

If the GreenBuilding Partner includes Building Envelope improvement, it hat to prepare:

  • the Inventory of Building Envelope components and system functioning;
  • the Assessment of the applicability of possible energy savings measures;
  • the Action Plan, which defines what the Partner has decided to do to reduce operating costs by improving energy efficiency;
  • a Report of progress on the Action Plan.

In particular, note that documents relating to the Inventory and the Assessment are in house, confidential documents, while the Action Plan and the Report are sent to the GreenBuilding Project.

Useful links:

1. TEBUC – “Towards an European Building Code” final report, September 2003
http://www.energyagency.at/publ/pdf/enper_tebuc.pdf

2. BSRTA – “Ait Tightness Specification”
http://www.bsria.co.uk/airtightness/

3. BRESEC – “Energy consumption guide 19 – Energy use in offices” UK, 2002
http://www.cooperatives-uk.coop/live/images/cme_resources/Users/Nick%20Carbon/office-guide.pdf

4. EU – SAVE MURE Project – Database of national thermal insulation
regulations
http://www.mure2.com/

5. EU – IEE KeepCool Project – “Promotion of sustainable summer comfort in service buildings” – Reduction of Energy Need for cooling
http://www.eerg.it/index.php?p=Progetti_-_Keepcool_II 

Detailed Technical Module "Building Envelope" 

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