Energy Efficiency
Thermal mass - best practice guidelines for:
- Housing
- Offices & commercial buildings
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National adaptation
Climate change sets the priority goals of environmental efforts in the building sector in relation to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions from the built environment. The operation of buildings represents 40% of the total energy consumption in Europe.
Concrete offers a very effective solution to the requirements of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Directive 2002/91/EC of 16 December 2002), since 2006, applying minimum requirements on the energy performance of new buildings, including heating and cooling energy.
The main energy benefit of using concrete in buildings is its high thermal mass that leads to thermal stability. This saves energy and produces a better indoor climate/environment for building occupants and users.
Concrete is capable of buffering a large part of the free heat gains such as solar radiation and heat and can decrease energy consumption and improve thermal comfort.
The thermal mass of concrete in buildings:
- Optimises the benefits of solar gain, so reducing the need for heating fuel.
- Reduces heating energy consumption by 2 - 15%.
- Smoothes out fluctuations in internal temperature.
- Delays peak temperatures in offices and other commercial buildings until the occupants have left.
- Reduces peak temperatures and can make air-conditioning unnecessary.
- Can be used with night-time ventilation to eliminate the need for daytime cooling.
- When combined with air-conditioning, it can reduce the energy used for cooling by up to 50%.
- Can reduce the energy costs of buildings.
- Makes best use of low-temperature heat sources such as ground source heat pumps.
- The reductions in energy use for both heating and cooling cuts emissions of CO2.
- Will help future proof buildings against climate change.
Using concrete in buildings benefits everyone: Building occupants, owners and the environment.
A heavy material such as concrete is capable of buffering a large part of the free heat gains, such as solar radiation and heat. Concrete can therefore decrease energy consumption as well as improve thermal comfort. A taskforce of three principal organisations related to concrete construction (CEMBUREAU/BIBM/ ERMCO) has investigated and documented the advantages of heavy buildings. Energy balance calculations were undertaken for buildings of heavy and lightweight construction in various European climates, for both residential and office circumstances. The results show that a solid residential building requires 2-7% less bought energy for heating compared to a building of lightweight construction. This has significant economical and environmental impacts. Where cooling is required, the energy savings are even larger and cooling facilities can be avoided altogether in many heavy buildings. The advantages are further increased if the effect of thermal mass is actively taken into account in the building design. An information database of the role of concrete in energy efficient buildings including a portfolio of energy efficient concrete buildings has been compiled.
National adaptation