NEARLY ZERO ENERGY BUILDING CONCEPT, ENERGY DESIGN PARADIGM FOR NEW BUILDINGS AND FOR RENOVATING EXISTING BUILDINGS

Abstract

The paper focuses on the new concept of Nearly Zero Energy Building – NZEB, which should lead, in time, to reducing the fossil energy consumption and to the protection of the natural and built environment. The NZEB concept, as defined by the European Directive 2010/31/EU, represents a new paradigm in the design and construction of new buildings, as well as in renovating existing buildings. In practice, starting with 01.01.2021 all new buildings will be NZEB buildings. The paper focuses on the energy configuration of NZEB buildings (new/existing buildings, as defined by Law 372/2005 and by Annex 1 of the European Directive 2010/31/EU) in terms of envelope, installations and energy profile. The definition of this type of building should include objective local particularities (climate parameters). The building is characterised by very high energy performance and the reference parameter is the primary energy indicator. The technical characteristics determined by using the cost-optimal method (Commission Delegated Regulation EU no. 244/2012), are introduced. By extrapolation, the maximum acceptable values of primary energy corresponding to the energy used by NZEB buildings in Romania are presented. The logical pattern of the original predictor-corrector method for the energy configuration of NZEB buildings, based on three calculation modules: dynamic modelling of the energy response of the building (M1), Primary Energy calculation module (M2) and estimation of cost-efficiency of the NZEB building technical solutions (M3) is presented. The results are presented as the technical and economic performance required by a NZEB building which will be designed in Romania.

Keywords: energy performancedynamic simulationcost-optimalprimary energyenergy configuration of buildings