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18
ZEB
annual report 2014
Energy use is a large contributor to
greenhouse gas emissions from buildings
in an international perspective. This is one
reason for the requirements on energy
efficiency of buildings in regulations and
norms. The Norwegian requirements are
defined as an annual maximum energy
demand per square meter floor area. The
passive house standards for residential
and commercial buildings set stricter
requirements than the current regulations,
but the specifications only deal with the
energy demand in the operational stage of the
buildings’ lifetime. This favours construction
solutions that result in a low energy demand
during operation, but that might have
required a substantial amount of energy for
manufacturing of materials and components.
The energy for production of construction
materials and technical systems in modern
and well insulated buildings have been proven
to be higher than the total energy demand
through 60 years of operation of the building.
This is both due to the very low energy
demand and to high use of materials for the
construction and the installations. Evaluation
of the whole life cycle of the building is needed
to find the better solutions that give both a low
energy demand and minimal greenhouse gas
emissions.
Zero Emission Buildings, as defined by
the Norwegian Research Centre on Zero
Emission buildings (ZEB), require renewable
energy generation onsite to compensate
for emissions from different stages of the
buildings’ lifetime. Electricity production from
solar cells and/or heat production from heat
pumps are examples of relevant technologies.
Renewable energy production is illustrated
by the green circle in the figure below. The
orange circles shows the greenhouse gas
emissions related to the different stages in a
building’s lifetime. The figure presents a case
where the resulting emissions from material
production are higher than the accumulated
emissions from operation of the building.
Construction and demolition contribute less
(smaller circles).
ZEB has defined different performance levels
Birgit Risholt (SINTEF) and Berit Time (SINTEF)
It’s the interdisciplinary challenges
that make zero emission buildings
research so interesting
MEANS TO ACHIEVE ZEB
|
HVORDAN OPPNÅ ZEB