Introduction - Nearly Zero Energy Building Refurbishment - page 5

Some investigations (Fisk et al. 2011 ) show that improving indoor
environmental quality in the stock of US office buildings would generate a
potential annual economic benefit of approximately $20 billion. Unfortunately,
most occupants are unaware of such health risks and prefer to reduce ventilation
rates. It is then no surprise to find out that ventilation measurement across Europe
shows that ventilation is in practice often poor, resulting in reduced ventilation
rates (Dimitroulopoulou 2012 ).
A recent study (Galvin 2013 ) carried out in the city of Aachen, Germany, shows
an interesting case of energy-inefficient manual ventilation, which means that
energy efficiency is most influenced by occupants' behaviour.
In the context of energy efficiency, it is preferable to reduce the toxicity of
building materials, and avoiding the use of materials that release pollutants. EU
has recently passed regulations that will make mandatory the environmental
assessment of construction and building materials.
On 9 March 2011, the European Union approved Regulation (EU) 305/2011,
the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), that replaced Directive 89/106/EEC,
already amended by Directive 1993/68/EEC, known as the Construction Products
Directive (CPD). The new CPR was published in the Official Journal of the
European Union (OJEU) on 4 April 2011. In accordance with Article 68, the CPR
entered into force on 24 April, the 20th day following its publication in the OJEU.
This includes Articles 1 and 2, 29-35, 39-55, 64, 67 and 68, and Annex IV.
However, Articles 3-28, 36-38, 56-63, 65 and 66, as well as Annexes I, II, III and
V, shall apply from 1 July 2013.
When comparing the basic requirements of the CPR and CPD, one can see that
the CPR has a new requirement, no. 7 (Sustainable use of natural resources), and
also that no. 3 (Hygiene, health and the environment) and no. 4 (Safety and
accessibility in use) have been refined. This means that a new and more environ-
ment-friendly approach will determine the manufacture of construction products.
A crucial aspect of the new regulation relates to the information regarding
hazardous substances.
This means that commercialization of construction materials in Europe beyond
1 July 2013, will make their environmental assessment mandatory, thus facilitating
choosing low-toxicity materials.
3 Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings
In the last decade, several high-energy performance building (HEPB) concepts have
been proposed, from low-energy building through passive building and zero-energy
building to positive energy building and even autonomous building (Thiers and
Peuportier 2012 ). For the Building Technologies Program of the US Department of
Energy (DOE), the strategic goal is to achieve ''marketable zero energy homes in
2020 and commercial zero energy buildings in 2025''. However, commercial
definitions maybe tainted by biased view, allowing for energy-inefficient buildings
to achieve the status of zero energy thanks to oversized PV systems (Sartori 2012).