Fuel poverty can be defined as "the inability to afford adequate warmth in the home". The concept was firstly developed due to health risks related to cold among low income households. However, in the last few decades, especially since the summer heat wave of 2003 that caused 35,000 deaths across Europe, a lot of research has been conducted about the health risks related to high temperatures.Along with advances in knowledge related to the health risks associated with inadequate temperatures, several directives of the European Commission related to energy regulation urge Member States to develop their own fuel poverty definitions. This need of a methodological development for new definitions poses several questions. First, what should be the temperature thresholds for the overheated season? But, furthermore, are existing temperature baselines adequate for the Spanish context and climate?This paper presents a preliminary approach to define these new temperature thresholds for the Spanish context through the adaptive comfort model criteria. For that purpose, a statistically representative dwelling building typology of vulnerable household spaces was used to analyze indoor thermal temperatures and hence, to establish minimal energy requirements so as to achieve minimal habitability conditions.

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Prediction of the energy performance of buildings helps designers with decision-making during the design process in new construction, as well as in renovation projects. Simulation software is used as a prediction tool to calculate the energy performance of buildings. However, numerous studies question its reliability due to the existing discrepancy (gap) between calculated and actual energy performance. Although occupant behaviour is identified as a factor of major impact on the energy performance of buildings, the complex stochastic nature of user behaviour makes it difficult to define actual occupancy patterns. As a result, standard and normative data are usually used as input in energy simulation models. The aim of this research is to test the effect of the use of actual presence profiles on energy demand simulations compared to the use of international normative presence profiles. A study on energy demand has therefore been developed, using dynamic simulation and monitoring campaigns. The results show that the heating and cooling energy demand may differ by up to 15% depending on whether actual or standard presence profiles are used. Therefore, presence profiles should be considered as a significant factor in the adjustment of input data in renovation projects. The final aim of this investigation is to determine the effect of using more accurate building and occupancy simulation parameters when assessing the feasibility of building renovation (payback period calculation for example). This paper focuses on the effect of presence profiles.

Despite great advances on building energy evaluation, available climate data does not include the effects of the Urban Heat Island (UHI). This phenomenon, which increases the temperature in urban areas, is variable in both time and space, and implies an important lack of accuracy when simulating within an urban context. During this research the relevance of the UHI in relation to the dwellings energy performance has been confirmed, as well as the existing barriers to integrate the current UHI representations into the dynamic energy simulation process. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out an update of the existing models, in order to implement it into the energy evaluation process. In this work, as a first stage of the study and based on current techniques of geolocation and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), it is established a methodology to acquire automatically an update of the UHI through isotherm maps. It is aimed to set up the starting point from which the integration of the UHI into the energy simulation process will happen.

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