Introduction to Ecotechnology

LOOM.02.333
2022 spring

Energy demand of building

Martin Maddison
martin.maddison@ut.ee
Terms related to energy efficiency in building
• Thermal transmittance factor (U-value) is the rate of transfer of heat through a
structure (which can be a single material or a composite), divided by the
difference in temperature across that structure. The units of measurement are
W*m-2*K-1 (watt per square meter-Kelvin). The better-insulated a structure is, the
lower the U-value will be.
• Thermal conductivity of a material (Ψ or k or λ value) is the ability of a material
to conduct heat (W*m-1*K-1 (watt per meter-Kelvin)).
• Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal
energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal
contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved
with specially engineered methods or processes, as well as with suitable object
shapes and materials.
• Energy performance indicator (kWh m-² y-1) – calculated total weighted specific
use of delivered energy consumed in the course of standard use of the building,
from which the weighted specific use of exported energy is subtracted; sums up
all delivered and exported energy (electricity, district heat/cooling, fuels).
Energy loss in building
• Represents energy demand in a Places of heat loss in building:
building for heating, cooling,
ventilation, domestic hot water,
lighting and appliances (if appliances Ventilation
are included in the system boundary Roof
as proposed).
• Energy need for heating is caused by
heat losses and is reduced by solar and External walls
internal heat gains. Windows/doors
• Net energy need is the energy need Hot water Floor
minus heat gains, i.e. thermal energy
without any system losses needed to
maintain indoor climate conditions. Operation and maintenance costs can account for
80% of a building’s total running costs over its
• For the lighting and appliances
lifetime.
electrical energy is needed.
Building energy demand
• Buildings must be designed to use
energy minimally during the exploitation Building energy demand
period. in cold climates
Elect.
• Reducing energy consumption by Hot 8%
minimizing energy inputs for heating, water
25 %
cooling and light, and incorporating Heating
energy efficient appliances. 67 %

• It can be achieved by installing an

effective heating system or also by using
sufficient insulation layers.
Building energy demand (2)
• Energy demand of houses has decrease over the years.
• Heating systems are more efficient, and more insulation material is
added.
Heating Hot water Electr. for ventilation Electr. for household

10%
10%
kWh m-2 y-1

15%
15%
18% 19%
19% 24%
80% 18%
24%
70%
62% 62% 33%
50% 33%
33%
Before Germany Sweden Germany Low Passive Zero
1980 1984 1980 1995 energy house heating
buildings energy
Energy loss vs thermal insulation
CO2 annually annually

110 m2 private house 110 m2 private house

+20 °C. +20 °C.

Moderate thermal insulation Good thermal insulation

1650 liters oil annually 550 liters oil annually

• CO2 emission from producing 100 mm insulation layer out of rock wool for one
building, are equal to the saved emissions from two years of this building's
exploitation period
Reducing heating energy demand
• Measures to deacreas heating energy demand are:
– better insulation;
– avoiding and diminishing cold bridges (thermal bridges) in building
structures;
– enhancing air tightness of building envelopes;
– good quality and optimal placment of windows = use of passive solar energy;
– heat recovery from ventilation!

• It is important to combine all these measures and optimize them.

• Saving energy can’t be achived at the expense of the quality of
indoor climate!
Indoor climate
• Quality indicators for good indoor climate are the well being and convenience
(comfort) of the inhabitants.

• Convenience depends on:

• climatic conditions (temperature, humidity, air movement);
• chemical conditions (aerosols, gases, odor);
• physical conditions (shape of the room, acoustics, electrical field);
• optical (light, color);
• individual personal factors (age, activities, gender, clothing etc).
 Indoor climate
Expectations from indoor climate
• suitable temperature;
• good light;
• clean and fresh air;
• odorless;
• no indoor wind drought, no noise;
• suitable humidity.

Suitable conditions are ensured by heating, ventilation and lightning.

 Indoor climate
If the light is bad?
• We use additional lightning
• Electricity consumption
• Color of the light
• Intensity of the light

• By designing the building, we must plan maximal usage of natural light –

achievable with the right place, size and shape of windows.
 Indoor climate
If the room is airless?
• We ventilate the room through windows:
• heat loss;
• air draught (wind indoors).
• Build a ventilation system:
• is needed to install the system and pipes in the room;
• electricity consumption

• By designing the building, we must plan the ventilation of the building and
suitable ventilation method.
 Indoor climate
If the room is too hot?
• We ventilate the room through windows
• Heat loss
• Air draught (wind indoors)
• We use curtains and window blinds
• Solar radiation still enters the room
• We install an air conditioner
• Electricity consumption
• An alternative would be to design the windows with suitable
size and placement and to use various screens and sunshades
 Indoor climate
If the room is too cold?
• We use additional heating
• Additional fuel consumption
• Additional heat energy

• We install additional insulation layer on the building

• It costs money

• A solution is to design the building with optimal insulation, air-tight and with
optimal heating solution
Indoor climate and energy efficiency of buildings
• The indoor climate depends mostly on the designed technological systems
(heating, ventilation, light).

• Technological systems determine the energy demand of the building.

• Architectural design can influence greatly which technological systems are

suitable for a certain building and how high is the energy demand of the building.
Energy efficiency of buildings
• Unit of heating energy demand is
Energy for heating
kWh m-² y-1 (kilowatt-hours per
square meter per year). / Y)

• Old uninsulated buildings can use Estonian

300 - 400 kWh m-² y-1 or more average
heating energy.
Common
• Simplified: 10 kWh m-² y-1 means new building
Low energy
that to heat one square meter of a building
building, we would use ~ 1 liter oil. Passive
Ca 10
times

house
So, 300 kWh m-² y-1 mean that ~30
liters of oil are needed to heat one
square meter of a building.
Energy efficiency of a new building
Important aspects about design:
• Building compactness (shape factor).
• The orientation of the building with respect to the annual solar
movement:
- helps with passive solar heating
- prevention of cooling.

• Maximal natural light usage

- Minimal building depth
- High windows
- Different technical solutions for scattering light to other
parts of the building.
 Energy efficiency of building
Building compactness
• Shape factor describes how much building envelope surface area is compared to
the volume of the building.
• Hence, it is the building envelope surface are A (m2) divided by the building
volume (m3)– A/V (Ratio of Surface Area and Volume)
• The envelope surface area depends directly on the shape of the building. The
simpler the shape, the better compactness the building has. The most compact
orthogonal building would then be a cube.
• This configuration may place a large portion of the floor area far from perimeter
daylighting.
• A building massing that optimizes daylighting and ventilation would be
elongated. So, compromises must be made.
 Energy efficiency of building - Building compactness
Impact of A/V ratio on building energy demand
The smaller the ratio (the smaller the area compared to the
volume) the more energy efficient the building is.
Useful space 100 m2
A/V 1,2 1,1 0,6 0,3 0,2
energy
demand 140% 130% 100% 80% 65%

The greater the surface area the more the heat gain/ loss through it.
 Energy efficiency of building - Building compactness
Impact of building shape on an additional insulation
 Energy efficiency of building
Impact of building placement on building energy demand
• exposed to „open air“

100% 95% 85%

• exposed to solar radiation

100% 150%
Energy efficient windows
• Windows are elements of building
envelope where most of the heat loss triple panel glazing
occurs.
• The size and shape of windows influence
how much natural light can be used in a
room and allows us to use passive solar
energy.
• If the windows are too big, then we can small frame
have overheating during summer and
cooling is needed.
space for air

seals 2x
 Windows
The impact of window size to the U-value of the window

The glass packets have smaller U-value than the Glass and frame ratio
window frame. More heat flows through the
frame than the insulated glass unit.

The lower the U-value, the smaller the heating

costs. But low U-value of windows doesn’t only
decrease heating energy demand, but it is also
important for comfortable indoor climate.
 Energy efficient windows
Insulation of the window frame from outside
Window frame that is
insulated from the THERM 6.3
outside

Ψ = 0,014 W/(mK) Ψ = 0,050 W/(mK)

SmartWin Window installation with insulation Window installation without insulation
calculation: PassiveHouse OÜ
 Energy efficient windows
Windows with a low U-value
If the indoor air comes in contact with cold window glass, the air cools down. Cooler air
is heavier, and it sinks, then new warm air moves to replace it. Such air movement, if it
is faster than 0.15 m/s, make us feel like there is a wind.
Hence, a low U-value for windows decreases such indoor air movements and we have
better indoor climate.
If the room temperature is +22 °C, then the window glass temperature shouldn't be
lower than +14 °C to avoid such air movements.
To archive over +14 °C indoor temperature close to window glass
- 1x glass > +10 °C outside temperature
- 2x glass > +2°C
- 3x glass > –5°C
- 2x selective glass > –15°C
- 3x selective glass > –26°C
Thermal bridges
• Thermal/gold bridges is an area or component of an object which has
higher thermal conductivity than the surrounding materials, creating a path of
least resistance for heat transfer. Thermal bridges result in an overall reduction
in thermal resistance of the object.

cold bridge free

NOT cold bridge free

Thermal bridges – besides energy efficiency
• Dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated
with water vapor. When further cooled, the airborne water vapor
will condense to form liquid water (dew).

• At room temperature 20°C and relative air humidity 40% the dew point is at 6°C
• At room temperature 25°C and relative air humidity 45% the dew point is at 11°C
• At room temperature 25°C and relative air humidity 60% on the dew point is
allready at 17°C
• Common relative air humidity indoors is 35-65%

• Hence cool bridges give us problems with dew and afterwards with mold.
 Ventilation heat recovery
• Heat exchange system delivers fresh filtered air from outside the building to the
living and bedrooms and extracts stale air from high moisture areas such as
bathrooms, kitchens and laundries.
• It recovers up to 95% of the heat from the exhaust air and transfers it to the
incoming air.

cooling heating heat transfer

• Heat exchangers are used in both cooling and heating processes.
 Drain water heat recovery
• System transfers some of the heat from the drain water to
the incoming water through a heat exchanger, reduced
energy is required.
• Water heating accounts for approximately 20 to 30
percent of household energy demand.
 Distribution of energy efficient buildings
By energy demand:
• Low energy house
• Passive house
• Near zero energy house
 Distribution of energy efficient building
Low-energy house
• Shows that the total energy demand is lower than minimum
requirements in regulations;
• In Estonian regulations for low-energy buildings are
-2 -1
Building type kWh m y )
1) Small private house 120
2) Appartment building 120
3) Office building, libary, scientific 130
building
4) Commercial building 160
5) Public building 150
6) Trading building (shop) 160
7) Educational building 120
8) Kindergarten 140
9) Medical building 300
 Distribution of energy efficient building
Passive houses
Cirteria:
• Building heating energy demand (calculated with passive house design tool PHPP)
doesn’t exceed 15 kWh/(m2 y). Overall energy demand including all energy used
in the building (heating, hot water, electricity) doesn’t exceed 120 kWh/(m2 y);
• Thermal insulation of walls: U-value below 0.15 W/(m2K), separately standing
private houses typically below 0.10 W/(m2 K); (insulation material thickness 20–
40 cm instead of typical 15–20 cm;
• Cold bridge free structures (thermal conductivity Ψ ≤ 0,01 W/(mK);
• Glass surfaces: U-value below 0,8 W/(m2 K), window frames: U-value below 0,8
W/(m2 K);
• Airtightness of the building – air leakage measurement n50 (air exchange) can’t
exceed 0,6 1/h at 50 Pa pressure difference ;
• Mechanical ventilation with high heat recovery rate (η ≥ 80%) must be used;
• Passive house standard doesn’t say which materials have to be used for achieving
the criteria. It is only important, that the criteria are met.
 Distribution of energy efficient building
Near-zero energy house
-2 -1
• In Estonian regulations for near-zero- Building type kWh m y )
energy buildings are 1) Small private house 50
2) Appartment building 100
• A net zero energy building can acquire
3) Office building, libary, 100
outside energy if it is compensated by the scientific building
energy that is exported from the buildings
4) Commercial building 130
network.
5) Public building 120

A
Buildings energy demand for heating, hot water, 6) Trading building 130
(shop)
electric equipment is low
7) Educational building 90

B The energy is provided by systems installed to

the building and produced by the house itself
8) Kindergarten
9) Medical building
100
270

A – B ≤ 0 (kWh m-2 Y-1)

Efficiency, profitability and climate
• Decreasing the heating demand below 15 kWh/(m2 y) gives
almost no additional economic effect, but the construction costs
can increase significantly;
• Hence, a building with zero heating energy demand is not
feasible in practice.
• Climatic impacts: colder climates mean that better thermal
insulation is needed for minimizing heat loss. The idea of
standards doesn’t change.
• In Estonia usually long-term climatic data from Tõravere weather
station (TRY data) is used for energy calculations.
• Also, sun radiation protection must be designed for summertime
to avoid cooling energy demand.
• In passive houses also no active cooling systems are used.
 Airthighness of a building
• For a pressure test is installed on the front door a ventilator fan and a pressure
difference (50 Pa) is generated indoors and outdoors.
• The air amount of air that goes
through the ventilator is fixated
(measured) and that also shows
the leakages in building envelope.
• Before the test is conducted, other
installed ventilation openings and
fireplace chimneys are closed.
• The result of the test shows the air
leakage number n50 (1/h), which
describes how many times the air
is completely changed inside the
building during one hour at the
current pressure difference.
Simulation of energetic balance of building
• The energetic balance of a building is calculated based
on local climatic conditions and based on the design of
the building.
• Software: EnergyPlus, TRNSYS, ESP, Dynbil, Julotta,
Phoenics, TAS, Suncode

The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP,

passivehouse.com) is a MS Excel based calculation tool
for architects and designer for planning low energy
buildings (including passive houses).
Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail

EPHD building in Põlva, Estonia T. Mauring

 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Project details
•Treated floor area according to PHPP:
285 m²/Volume 1.222 m³
•Construction time: 10/2011 – 04/2013
•Adress: Põlva, Metsa tn. 5a,

•Architects: Martha Enriquez Reinberg

and Georg W. Reinberg, Architekturbüro
Reinberg ZT GmbH, Wien

Consulters:
•Tõnu Mauring, Jaanus Hallik and Kristo
Kalbe,
•, Johannes Riebenbauer, Graz (static
engineer),
•S&P Climadesign GmbH (Haustechnik),
•Margus Valge, Sense OÜ (project
management and site supervision),
•PassiveHouse OÜ, Estonia and Passive
House Institute, Darmstadt (Certification). T. Mauring
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Building phase

T. Mauring September 2011

 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Building of interior

T. Mauring
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Thermal envelop
Wall
400 mm cellulose fiber, 94 mm
KLH
Massive wood, U = 0,105
W/(m2K)

Ceiling
500 mm EPS, 102 mm KLH
U = 0,079 W/(m2K)

Wall, underground
500 mm EPS, 200 mm concrete
U = 0,066 W/(m2K)

Floor
Concrete Clay Wood Thermal insulation 300 mm XPS, 300 mm concrete,
100 mm EPS
U = 0,086 W/(m2K)
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Solar panels

12 m2 roof integrated solar thermal

collectors for warm water

separate array of solar thermal

collectors 13 m2 for heating and
hot water integrated to southern
façade and optimized for the
winter operation
4910 kWh per year
T. Mauring
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Roof plan
11,5 m2 solar
collectors
For hot water
production

T. Mauring

90 m2 PV
Electricity production
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Energy concept

T. Mauring
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Sunshine and air temperature in Tõravere vs Frankfurt(GER)

Sunshine duration Ambient air temperature

 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Indoor massive clay wall
Indoor massive wall are heated
up by solar light.

Regular temperature increase 7

K in 6,5 hours.

No additional heating in whole

March.

T. Mauring
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Summer night ventilation
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Ready to use
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Whole building energy demand and production
Calculated values:

Net space heating demand

Production
Losses of space heat
distribution (non-utilised)

Net energy demand for

domestic hot water (DHW)
production

Losses of DHW storage and

Demand
distribution (non-utilised)

Energy demand covered by

T. Mauring GSHP (vertical ground source
heat pump)
1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000
0

10000

11000

12000
Useful energy production by
solar-thermal system for
Energy demand and production (kWh/y) space heating and DHW
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Building heat balance per month
3500
Heat loss and heat gains in kWh/month

2500

1500

500

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
-500

-1500

-2500

Net space heat demand Utilised internal heat gains

Utilised solar gains Non-utilised internal heat gains
Non-utilised solar gains Heat losses

PHPP T. Mauring
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Net heating energy demand 15 kWh m-2 y-1
Annual energy balance

Passive solar energy from windows

Free energy from internal sources

Annual net heating energy

Cold bridges offset calculation
Heat flow

Not usable free energy

Losses from ventilation system

Losses from the front door

Losses from windows

Losses through the building foundation

Losses through the roof

Losses through external walls

LOSSES GAINS
 Heat losses and gains in heating period in
kWh/y

-7000
-6000
-5000
-4000
-3000
-2000
-1000
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Exterior Wall 7000
to Ambient

-3073
Exterior Wall

-311
to Conservatory

Exterior Wall

-367
to Ground

Roof to Ambient -1064

Floor slab
-681

Windows
(incl. thermal bridges)
-5706
Building heat balance per year

Exterior Door
-278

Linear thermal bridges

546

(external dim.)

Ventilation and
infiltration
-1210

Utilised solar
5734

heat gain

Utilised internal
2365

heat gain

Annual net
4044

space heat demand

PHPP calculation
Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Window heat balance in kWh per year
Heat losses Utilised solar gains Non-utilised solar gains

West

South

East

North
PHPP calculation T. Mauring

-4000 -3000 -2000 -1000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Heat loss and gain for the heating period in kWh/a
 Nearly Zero Energy Building in detail
Electricity demand and production
12000
Photovoltaic Demand:
- Heating
10000 - Hot water
- Electric equipment(inc. heat pump)
Electricity, kWh/a

10 360 kWh/a
8000 Domestic
appliances,
lighting, sauna
6000 equipment etc. PV
90 m2 SolarWorld Sunmodule Plus SW
Technical
4000 196 Vario poly
installations
(ventilators,
Calculated production of electricity:
pumps etc.)
2000
GSHP (vertical 10 120 kWh/a
ground source
0
heat pump)

≈0
Demand Production
Balance
References
For this lecture are used Alar Noorvee, Tõnu Mauring and Kuldar Leis
materials.

More readings about building energy efficiency:

• sense.ee
• passivehouse.com
Thank You for Your attention!