Energy Performance of Buildings: Comsumption and Methodologies

The evaluation of energy performance of buildings (EPB) depends on several factors, which are related to local climate contest. In northern Europe countries the evaluation of EPB depends of the energy heating dispersions, since climate is mostly cold all over the year. In these countries the design of buildings’ technical solutions is comprehensive of super-insulation of the wrapped and frames, and of capture solar energy by frames and wall accumulation (solar passive solution). In southern Europe countries, where climate is mainly warm and dry, the buildings technical solutions are comprehensive of wind passive ventilation, cooling plant and thermal inertia of walls, which avoid overheating of indoor environments. In the Mediterranean area the climate do not justify neither of the aforementioned approaches. In these countries it is necessary to use flexible solutions, which could change in relation with climate conditions, taking advantage of their peculiar architectural elements, as: the porch, the court, the patio. The models of buildings energy performance calculation become therefore very important to properly evaluate the EPB and the better solutions to increase the energy efficiency. The calculation models should guarantee the uniformity and “globality” of energy performance evaluation, where “globality” means the overall energy consumptions, considering different countries and local climate conditions. In this paper the result of energy primary calculation in a house in Italy is presented. The study compares three evaluation methods: operating rating, dynamic simulation and static simulation, all referred to Directive 2002/91/CE. The dissimilarities between real energy consumption and simulation software will be analysed and discussed