scholarly journals Towards Nearly Zero Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Agritourisms: The Effectiveness of the Application of the European Ecolabel Brand

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 5741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cirrincione ◽  
Maria La Gennusa ◽  
Giorgia Peri ◽  
Gianfranco Rizzo ◽  
Gianluca Scaccianoce
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Condition ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Energy Behavior ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Eu Ecolabel

Tourism represents an important economic driver in Italy, being responsible for approximately 13.2% of the total GDP (a value higher than the reference European average) and for nearly 10% of the regional GDP. Among the touristic sectors, the agritourist ones show a persistent growth, experiencing in 2019 a 6.7 point percentage improvement compared to the 2017 figures. Given this situation, the transition towards a low-carbon path, affecting the building sector for some time, should also involve agritourist buildings, through the release of EU directives, member state laws, and technical rules. On the other hand, agritourism sites could be awarded the Community EU Ecolabel. Unfortunately, awarding the EU environmental excellence brand implies the availability of several data on building energy behavior that should then be managed by complex evaluation tools. To overcome this issue, the use of the simplified ARERA (Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy Networks and Environment) technical datasheets, issued to assess environmental improvements consequent to energy efficiency interventions in the urban residential building stock, is proposed. The application of this tool totally avoids using building computer-based simulation models, thus facilitating the preparation of the EU Ecolabel request documentation by agritourism owners. Being awarded the Community EU Ecolabel also implies approaching a net zero energy condition because of a lower energy consumption and a minor recourse to fossil fuels. For this purpose, an application of an easy graphical method, previously developed for residential and commercial buildings, which visually represents improvements achievable by a given agritourism when implementing energy efficiency measures, is presented.

Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings & Buildings Built with Industrialized Technology: The Case of Hungary

2016 ◽  
Vol 824 ◽  
pp. 469-476
Author(s):  
Attila Talamon ◽  
Viktória Sugár ◽  
Ferenc Pusztai
Keyword(s):  
Economic Structure ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Ghg Emission ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Central European ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Zero Energy Buildings

There is an urgent need nowadays to reduce current levels of GHGs emissions. On the other hand the EU countries are largely dependent on energy imports and are vulnerable to disruption in energy supply which may in turn threaten the functioning of their current economic structure. The EU imported 54% of its energy sources in 2006 and this value was projected to increase even further by 2030. Reducing its import dependency is one of the EU’s main goals of the 20-20 by 2020 target – this legislative package is believed to reduce the expected imports of energy by 26% compared to the development before the 20-20 initiative.One of the most important environmental problems is the energy consumption of the buildings. Current paper shows that buildings built with industrialized technology can deliver large energy and GHG emission reductions at low costs.Only 1-2% part of the building stock is exchanged every year, so it is very important to increase the energy efficiency of the existing buildings, too.Present paper focuses on the buildings built with industrialized technology only, and their potential in nearly zero-energy buildings sector. Up till now the Central European support schemes concentrated most financial resources on buildings built with prefabricated technology. Present paper explains the past and present of the “panel” problem in Hungary with a short outlook to some other countries.

Energy models for cost-optimal analysis: Development and calibration of residential reference building models for Northern Cyprus

2021 ◽  
pp. 1420326X2110130
Author(s):  
Manta Marcelinus Dakyen ◽  
Mustafa Dagbasi ◽  
Murat Özdenefe
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Mean Squared Error ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Mean Bias Error ◽  
Bias Error ◽  
Sampled Data ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Northern Cyprus

Ambitious energy efficiency goals constitute an important roadmap towards attaining a low-carbon society. Thus, various building-related stakeholders have introduced regulations targeting the energy efficiency of buildings. However, some countries still lack such policies. This paper is an effort to help bridge this gap for Northern Cyprus, a country devoid of building energy regulations that still experiences electrical energy production and distribution challenges, principally by establishing reference residential buildings which can be the cornerstone for prospective building regulations. Statistical analysis of available building stock data was performed to determine existing residential reference buildings. Five residential reference buildings with distinct configurations that constituted over 75% floor area share of the sampled data emerged, with floor areas varying from 191 to 1006 m2. EnergyPlus models were developed and calibrated for five residential reference buildings against yearly measured electricity consumption. Values of Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Cumulative Variation of Root Mean Squared Error CV(RMSE) between the models’ energy consumption and real energy consumption on monthly based analysis varied within the following ranges: (MBE)monthly from –0.12% to 2.01% and CV(RMSE)monthly from 1.35% to 2.96%. Thermal energy required to maintain the models' setpoint temperatures for cooling and heating varied from 6,134 to 11,451 kWh/year.

Deep renovation up to zero energy through Add-ons: the ABRACADABRA Project

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annarita Ferrante ◽  
Fabrizio Ungaro ◽  
Giovanni Semprini ◽  
Lorna Dragonetti ◽  
Elettra Agliardi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Zero Energy ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
The Real Estate ◽  
International Projects ◽  
Eu Project ◽  
The Eu

<p>and international projects</p><p>various EU H2020 projects</p><p>Though housing is one of the most energy consumer sectors, it is currently extremely underestimated, because of a clear investment gap due to economic, social and legislative barriers. The EU project ABRACADABRA (Assistant Building to Retrofit, Adopt, Cure And Develop the Actual Buildings up to zeRo energy, Activating a market for deep renovation) is based on the idea that the real estate value increase given by the appropriate densification strategy in urban environments could be an opportunity to activate a market for deep energy renovation. To prove the effectiveness of the strategy more than 70 case studies throughout the EU cities have been assessed by means of a cost-effective analysis. Basing on the parametric variation of the different values involved (cost of construction, energy, etc.) the benefit of this strategy has been proved in the majority of the different building types and contexts.</p><p>More interestingly, the ABRA strategy has been simulated and tested outside Europe in order to verify its scalability and the possibility of considering other non-energy related benefits in the renovation of the existing building stock. A specific study on the NYC urban context has been conducted to effectively adapt the strategy and combine the global drivers of energy consumption reduction and CO<span>2</span> emission reduction with the local need of combating flood emergency and related flood-proofing measures.</p><p>The results reached by this work demonstrate how the energy retrofit trough add-ons reduces significantly the payback times of the investments, preserve soil consumption, while providing a extraordinary opportunity to enhance urban resiliency by challenging the local emergencies.</p>

Green Retrofit Energy Efficiency Potential on Existing Building Envelope for Residential and Non-Residential Building

2021 ◽  
pp. 1227-1257
Author(s):  
Robert Staiger
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Ecological Impact ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
Primary Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Efficiency Potential

The chapter deals with the green energetic consideration of today's building envelopes for residential and non-residential buildings. It investigates the energetic effects the envelopes have on energy efficiency, energy consumption, material use, sustainable use of resources, lifetime considerations, economic and ecological impact. Today's it is estimated that approximately 30% of the annual primary energy demand for residential and non-residential buildings is needed. Energy resources for heat, electricity, air conditioning and cooling purposes, fossil fuels in form of gas and liquid are predominantly used.

A comparative meta-analysis of residential green building policies and their impact on overall energy consumption patterns

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naim Jabbour
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Residential Energy ◽  
Residential Energy Consumption ◽  
The Eu

Data shows residential energy consumption constituting a significant portion of the overall energy end use in the European Union (EU), ranging between 15% and 30%. Furthermore, the EU’s dependency on foreign fossil fuel-based energy imports has been steadily increasing since 1993, constituting approximately 60% of its primary energy. This paper provides an analytical re-view of diverse residential building/energy policies in targeted EU countries, to shed insight on the impact of such policies and measures on energy use and efficiency trends. Accordingly, the adoption of robust residential green and energy efficient building policies in the EU has increased in the past decade. Moreover, data from EU energy efficiency and consumption databases attributes 44% of total energy savings since 2000 to energy upgrades and improvements within the residential sector. Consequently, many EU countries and organizations are continuously evaluating residential building energy consumption patterns to increase the sec-tor’s overall energy performance. To that end, energy efficiency gains in EU households were measured at 1% in 2000 compared to 27.8% in 2016, a 2600% increase. Accordingly, 36 policies have been implemented successfully since 1991 across the EU targeting improvements in residential energy efficiency and reductions in energy use. Moreover, the adoption of National Energy Efficiency Actions Plans (NEEACP) across the EU have been a major driver of energy savings and energy efficiency. Most energy efficiency plans have followed a holistic multi-dimensional approach targeting the following areas, legislative actions, financial incentives, fiscal tax exemptions, and public education and awareness programs and campaigns. These measures and policy instruments have cumulatively generated significant energy savings and measurable improvements in energy performance across the EU since their inception. As a result, EU residential energy consumption trends show a consistent decrease over the past decade. The purpose of this analysis is to explore, examine, and compare the various green building and energy-related policies in the EU, highlighting some of the more robust and progressive aspects of such policies. The paper will also analyze the multiple policies and guidelines across targeted European nations. Lastly, the study will assess the status of green residential building policies in Lebanon, drawing from the comprehensive European measures, in order to recommend a comprehensive set of guidelines to advance energy policies and building practices in the country. Keywords: Building Policies; Residential Energy Patterns; Residential Energy Consumption; Energy Savings

scholarly journals LEED Scores of Residential Buildings in Poor Cities: Kabul City Case

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6959
Author(s):  
Najib Rahman Sabory ◽  
Tomonobo Senjyu ◽  
Adina Hashemi Momand ◽  
Hadya Waqfi ◽  
Nilofar Saboor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Building Industry ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Building Sector ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Water Transportation

Urbanization and technology have proven to be detrimental to the environment. Buildings contribute a significant portion of this damage. This issue motivated governments, builders, engineers, and architects to seek ways to reduce buildings’ environmental footprints. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is one of the most widely used strategies to ensure energy efficiency and a clean environment in buildings. In Afghanistan, where there are no active regulatory frameworks for energy saving and efficiency for the building sector, it is imperative to promote the transformation of the building industry and practices towards sustainability. In this regard, the role of the residential building sector is of utmost importance due to its major share in the country’s energy consumption and GHG emissions profile. Thus, this study assesses the energy efficiency and environmental impact of existing buildings in Kabul city concerning the LEED rating system. This research suggests practical steps to improve the sustainability of the residential building stock in Kabul city. Robust sets of data on existing residential buildings in Kabul are collected, classified, evaluated, and compared to LEED standards. This research reveals and concludes that most of the existing buildings in Kabul city are in poor conditions and do not meet the minimum requirements to be a candidate for LEED certification. A detailed analysis of the results has led to recommendations on how these buildings could improve to meet the LEED criteria. This is the first study of its kind conducted for Kabul city residential building. Considering the cross-sectoral nature of the building industry, the findings of this study will contribute to many other areas such as water, transportation, ICT, health, energy and the environment.

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