Form, Cost and Energy Efficiency for A Sing-Family House

Abstract

One of the main national targets stipulated by the EPBD directive in the case of Romania is the reduction with 44% of the total energy consumption. Moreover, the residential sector has expanded significantly in the last decade, as a result of an increase in the need for housing next to the prolific urban areas. In this context, the embracement of energy efficient building concepts becomes necessary in order to reduce the energy demands of the new urban sprawls. The main purpose of the present research is to determine the comparative return of investment value for an energy efficient single-family house with a total useful area of 200 m2, occupying an average plot of 600-650 m2, as a common type of home suitable for a family of two adults and up to two children, in Timisoara, Romania, based on different energy consumption standards (reference level described by the national building codes, low energy and passive standard). In addition to this, from an architectural standpoint, three different volumetric approaches were considered, that comprise a constant air volume of 507-530 m3, with the aim of exploring the influence of the building form over the overall costs of the building envelope components (roof/terrace, walls and ground-floor slab). The scenarios consist of: a ground-floor flat roof house, a one-storey flat roof, as well as a one-storey with attic. The paper intends to analyse the relationship between the building form, energy performance level and cost of construction, and to search the optimum configuration of the building envelope, both in terms of form and layer composition, that allows a maximum energy efficiency level with minimum investment.