Energy performance criteria for residential buildings: A comparison of Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Russian building codes

Ingrid Allard,Gireesh Nair,Thomas Olofsson

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111276

Abstract

Building code are considered to be an effective policy tool to reduce energy use in buildings. In practice, national priorities influence the indicators and criteria adopted in the building codes. Consequently, neighbouring countries with similar climate conditions may use different criteria in their building codes to regulate the energy performance. In this paper, the energy performance criteria and their relative stringency in the latest residential building codes of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia are compared. The study is based on energy performance evaluations of one single-family building and one multi-family building, located in the north of Sweden. Both buildings complied with the Norwegian and Russian building code. However, the buildings did not comply with the specific fan power and heat loss criteria in the Finnish building code. Additionally, the single-family building did not comply with the specific primary energy and electric powerdemand criteria in the Swedish building code when heated by an electric heater. The national standard input data were found to have a large influence on the buildings’ compliance with the studied energy use criteria. Policy implications of the results are discussed.

Highlights

The residential sector offers a significant cost-effective energy use reduction potential in Europe [1]
The buildings complied with the Russian building code, and with the Norwegian building code
The single-family building did not comply with the specific primary energy and electric powerdemand criteria in the Swedish building code when heated by an electric heater.Table 12

Summary

Introduction

The residential sector offers a significant cost-effective energy use reduction potential in Europe [1]. Regulatory instruments have been found to be effective in reducing the energy use in buildings [2,3]. Building codes that stipulate energy performance criteria is a widely applied regulatory policy tool [4] to improve the energy efficiency in buildings. As per article 2 in the directive, nZEB are buildings that have a very high energy performance. It is the responsibility of the member states to provide numerical quantification/threshold values for ‘‘very high energy performance” [6]. EPBD stipulates that the member states shall define nearly zero-energy buildings based on the situation in the respective countries while providing a criterion for yearly primary energy use in kWh/m2 [6]. EPBD directs that the requirements should be set to achieve an optimal balance between investment cost and energy savings [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion