Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
according to the Passivhaus standard provided a good set of references for state of
the art in nearly zero energy buildings.
Our study explored a larger collection of projects from Austria, all including
approaches to retrofit with Passivhaus components. These upgraded buildings
generally achieved the energy efficiency level of the Passivhaus standard for new
buildings. They showed a reduction in heating demand of more than 80 %. For
these reasons, there is a need to understand what can be achieved using the new
frame of reference provided by the Passivhaus standard when applied to refur-
bishing schools from the perspective of very low-energy buildings.
Through a systematic analysis of the available project data for several cases of
school upgrades, a picture of the key elements of these achievements is drawn.
Schwanenstadt school is described in three reports written in German (interim
(Lang et al.
2006
), final (Plöderl et al.
2008
) and post-occupancy (Wagner et al.
2009
)) for the Austrian development project ''Haus der Zukunft'' [Building of
Tomorrow] (
http://www.hausderzukunft.at/english.htm
). These are the only pub-
lished documents of this kind we have found that describe a school upgrade
attaining such a high level of energy efficiency. Because of the asymmetry of the
available data, the Schwanenstadt project—which has been the best documented—
is used as a main reference for other projects as considered appropriate. This
written documentation is the base of this research. Specific data for the other
projects are available in the international multilingual internet database for passive
houses: Passivhaus-Datenbank (IG passivhaus Österreich n.d.). Additional infor-
mation was gathered on a study tour in Austria that visited four schools: Sch-
wanenstadt, Polytechn. u. Hauptschule II in Schwanenstadt; Allgemeine
Sonderschule 06 in Linz; Allgemeine Sonderschule 04/Karlhofschule in Linz; and
Hauptschule Zams-Schönwies, close to Innsbruck.
2 Context
2.1 Energy Efficiency in Buildings
Reduction in energy use can be identified as an important field of action justified by
the subsequent decrease in running costs of buildings, the limitation of greenhouse
gas emissions and energy independence. There has been much discussion and many
ideas on energy efficiency in buildings. Consequently, the last decades have seen
words, expressions and terminologies identifying numerous concepts, solutions,
systems and more precise definitions of energy-efficient buildings (Marszal et al.
2011
; Abel
1994
; Laustsen
2008
; Dequaire
2012
; Mlecnik
2011
). Sometimes,
energy efficiency is included in the broader perspective of environmentally friendly
approaches (Ebert et al.
2011
), which are themselves associated with different
words, definitions and scopes. Sometimes, it is reduced to a question of greenhouse
gas emissions. A ''nearly zero energy building'', as termed in the EU directive
(The European Parliament
2010
), requires reducing the energy consumption of
