Evaluation of energy performance in single family houses

• Main Author: Lindgren-Mönestam, Björn
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Institutionen för tillämpad fysik och elektronik 2013
• Subjects: building codes; simulations; Nordic countries; Building Technologies; Husbyggnad; Karlstad; Narvik; Norway; Piteå
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-80227

In order to improve people’s living situation and decrease the use of fossil energy in the world, researchers’ attention has been focused on the energy side of the building sector. Especially single family houses in the Nordic countries Norway, Sweden and Finland have been given attention in the Increasing Energy Efficiency in Buildings (IEEB) project, with the purpose of increasing energy efficiency in buildings. In the project presented in this report, this has been studied by simulating a low energy single family house at different locations in Scandinavia, and applying the various national building codes to the house to see how it would match the energy requirements. The simulated locations included the different climates in Helsinki, Oulu (Finland), Oslo, Narvik (Norway), Piteå, Umeå, Karlstad, Borlänge, Stockholm and Kalmar (Sweden). The house fulfilled almost all the national energy requirements with more or less margin because of its low energy use. A comparison with actual measurements of the house did not match as good, because of uncertainty in measurement methods and climate aspects. The national building codes and climate in the Nordic countries turned out to be similar enough for a coordination of the building codes to be possible in the future.