Abstract
European Building Codes have transitioned towards Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) requirements in new constructions, demanding high levels of insulation and airtightness derived from research and standards developed in Northern and Central Europe. The use of these principles in Southern Europe, where solar radiation is greater and building typologies and user behaviour are different, may have had a negative impact in Thermal Comfort and Energy Demand and Consumption. In this study, six dwellings located in a 2018 27-storey Passivhaus-certified building were monitored for a period of 9–18 months in 2019 and 2020. In the spirit of a complete Post-Occupancy Evaluation, a User Comfort Survey was carried out. The obtained data were analysed and fixed-limit and adaptative comfort models were used to assess the compliance of several European Comfort Standards, namely, EN ISO 7730, EN 15251, CIBSE TM:52, CIBSE TM:59 and CIBSE Guide A. Experimental results confirmed the issues reported by occupants in the Comfort Survey, making evident a severe overheating problem which we were able to quantify. In addition to presenting the obtained data and its analysis, this paper discusses the plausible causes and health-related implications of excess heat in NZEB Housing in the Northern Spanish climate.
Highlights
The improvement of energy efficiency in Europe, regulated by the European Directive EU 2010/31 [1], proposes as an objective the construction of buildings with almost zero energy consumption (NZEB), developed in EC 2016/1318 [2,3]
The CIBSE TM 52 standard for the Prevention of Overheating in European Buildings considers the survey of subjective perceptions of occupants to be the main and most appropriate method for analysing overheating in occupied buildings, considering it especially suitable for buildings where the occupants have a high degree of familiarity with the building, such as housing [54]
To this end, during the months of September and October 2019, a survey was presented to the users of housing in order to assess the comfort conditions, as well as other issues related to their perception of the quality of life in their homes and their opinion on energy consumption
Summary
The improvement of energy efficiency in Europe, regulated by the European Directive EU 2010/31 [1], proposes as an objective the construction of buildings with almost zero energy consumption (NZEB), developed in EC 2016/1318 [2,3]. Some aspects outlined in the document [3] are the use as models of the very low energy consumption buildings developed in Europe with conservative solutions built in the cold climates of Central and Northern Europe. The simulations are carried out with very broad reference climates This methodology has some disadvantages, such as the use as a model of single-family houses with a significantly different behaviour to collective housing, predominant in Spain. The real occupation in collective housing in Spain are higher than the Central European average and internal gains are very influential in buildings with very low energy demand. The objective of this study is to verify the behaviour of collective dwellings built under energy-conserving standards such as Passivhaus in the climate of the Basque Country and the degree of interior comfort according to different regulations focused on the detection of overheating
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