Methodological Approach for the Development of a Simplified Residential Building Energy Estimation in Temperate Climate

Gabriela Reus-Netto, Pilar Mercader-Moyano and Jorge D. Czajkowski
Additional contact information
Gabriela Reus-Netto: Sustainable Architecture & Habitat Laboratory, Faculty of Architecture & Urbanism, National University of La Plata, Calle 47 #162, 1900 La Plata, Argentina
Pilar Mercader-Moyano: Dpto de Construcciones Arquitectónicas I, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida Reina Mercedes 1, 41012 Seville, Spain
Jorge D. Czajkowski: Sustainable Architecture & Habitat Laboratory, Faculty of Architecture & Urbanism, National University of La Plata, Calle 47 #162, 1900 La Plata, Argentina

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 15, 1-27

Abstract: Energy ratings and minimum requirements for thermal envelopes and heating and air conditioning systems emerged as tools to minimize energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy efficiency and promote greater transparency with regard to energy use in buildings. In Latin America, not all countries have building energy efficiency regulations, many of them are voluntary and more than 80% of the existing initiatives are simplified methods and are centered in energy demand analysis and the compliance of admissible values for different indicators. However, the application of these tools, even when simplified, is reduced. The main objective is the development of a simplified calculation method for the estimation of the energy consumption of multifamily housing buildings. To do this, an energy model was created based on the real use and occupation of a reference building, its thermal envelope and its thermal system’s performance. This model was simulated for 42 locations, characterized by their climatic conditions, whilst also considering the thermal transmittance fulfilment. The correlation between energy consumption and the climatic conditions is the base of the proposed method. The input data are seven climatic characteristics. Due to the sociocultural context of Latin America, the proposed method is estimated to have more possible acceptance and applications than other more complex methods, increasing the rate of buildings with an energy assessment. The results have demonstrated a high reliability in the prediction of the statistical models created, as the determination coefficient (R2) is nearly 1 for cooling and heating consumption.

Keywords: method of simplified calculation; energy consumption of buildings; multifamily residential building; temperate climate; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4040/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4040/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:15:p:4040-:d:251862

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().