On the Establishment of Climatic Zones in Europe with Regard to the Energy Performance of Buildings

Abstract

Abstract:Nowadays, subjects such as eco-design requirements, product rating or code compliance with regard to energy efficiency are expanding towards a pan-European level. This leads to the necessity of defining zones within the European region, which share common climatic characteristics and will further facilitate the quick estimation of building energy performance. Towards this direction stands the current paper; it presents an approach for defining climatic zones in Europe on the basis of the amount of heating and cooling degree days. It is applied for the climate classification of selected European cities and is compared with the conventional scheme based solely on heating degree days. Since the approach is orientated mainly towards the assessment of building energy performance, its outcomes are evaluated with regard to the actual heating and cooling energy needs of a reference building unit with office use located in representative cities of the proposed climatic zones and facing the four cardinal orientations. The classification of climatic zones on the basis of both heating and cooling degree days leads to more realistic results, since nowadays cooling needs form a substantial part of the energy balance of the building, especially in the Mediterranean regions.

Assessment of Energetic, Economic and Environmental Performance of Ground-Coupled Heat Pumps

“…For highly carbon-intensive grids (i.e., higher than about 800 g CO 2 /kWh) such as in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Malta, and Poland, the use of GCHP can even lead to higher carbon dioxide emissions compared to a gas boiler. In the detail for each case study ( Figure S6 of the Supplementary Materials), we observe that, for an average (Italy) and low (France) carbon emission factor, the highest reductions are achieved in the coldest climates (climate Zones D, E, F and, to a lesser extent, B, according to the classification by Tsikaloudaki et al [33], since the main benefit is achieved by heating with the electrical heat pump, compared to gas. On the other hand, if electricity has a high emission factor (e.g., Poland), the GCHP in heating mode becomes more carbon-intensive than the gas boiler; in this case, a global CO 2 emission reduction could be achieved only in the case of a cooling-dominated building, since both air-source chillers and GCHPs use electricity, and GCHPs are more efficient.…”

“…Energies 2018, 11,1941 3 of 23 -Six climatic conditions, representative of the five climate zones defined by Tsikaloudaki et al [33] and an additional one (F) identifying very cold climates (Table 2). An example of this climatic classification is reported in the map in Figure 1.…”

A DFuzzy-DAHP Decision-Making Model for Evaluating Energy-Saving Design Strategies for Residential Buildings

“…Numerous factors are involved when considering energy-saving designs, particularly for large-scale carbon-neutral community building developments; examples include the use of renewable energies [31], eco-designs [32], solar energy [33][34][35], lighting [36], compressed shopper waste (CSW) blocks [37], waste disposal [8], air-conditioning facilities [38], ventilation designs [39,40], shading designs [41], heating systems [42,43], green roofs [44], building envelopes [45], and wall insulation for buildings and double-skin facades [46][47][48]. Therefore, comprehensive preparation in integration and design is required to demonstrate effectiveness.…”

Smart integration of photovoltaic production, heat pump and thermal energy storage in residential applications

“…The IEA classifies the climatic conditions according to the total number of heating degrees days (HDD) and cooling degrees days (CDD) per year, as reported in Table 2. Therein, we also report a representative city for each climate (Tsikaloudaki et al, 2011 (Laustsen, 2008).…”