Group 4B:

Bergold, Kajander, Leppä,

Niemeläinen, Pesonen
1. Background
2. Purpose & Origin
3. Scope & Methods
4. Energy consumption calculations method and factors
5. Calculation process
6. Calculations and factors
7. Tools
8. Examples
9. International comparison
10.Comments
• Energy consumption of a building in life cycle scale:
• 10-20% embodied energy
• 80-90% operational energy

• Main focus in lowering operational energy by e.g.

• better thermal insulation
• energy efficient HVAC machinery
• utilization of naturally occurring heat and light
• installation of solar panels, wind turbines

• On average, heating energy requirement for an old building 5x higher

than for a new building

• Recent EU directives require:

• Energy certificate for new buildings since 2002
• All new buildings must be nearly self-sufficient by 2020
• Legislation, such as EU directive from 2002, EU 20-20-20 etc.

• Ability to make better decisions in the design phase of

project

• Reduced costs in the life cycle of building

• Possibility to compare and evaluate different solutions

• Key focus is on the Finnish official method

• We cover just factors that are bound with the actual energy need:
building’s size, materials, structure and technical systems
(e.g. no ecology-political multipliers for energy sources )

• As the given task was about calculating energy consumption, e.g. not
costs, the economical calculations or comparisons, or energy
consumption of materials/building phase are not covered

• For new buildings, the official document is E statement, not E certificate.

As factors impacting the energy consumption calculations are similar,
the report doesn’t include a study about E statement.
 Purchased energy

Technical systems
Renewable in-house
energy sources - system losses
- conversion factors

Heating Cooling
energy energy electricity

Building’s energy need for Thermal losses

Solar radiation (windows) (inc. also leaks and
Users’ warming impact -heating -cooling - ventilation cold bridges)
-(warm) water -lightning - users’
equipment
• When planning a new building, the design program provides most of the
base values for the calculations, like heated net area of building and the
area of the building shell, and the U-values of different structures.

• In case of an old building, the determination of the base values would

need not just old design documents but also an inspection of the building.

• The efficiency values of technical systems (heating, cooling, ventilation

etc) are determined by technical documents; for older systems, of an old
building, default values are used if documents are not available

• Calculations are easily done by tools after the base values are determined
• Consumption is told as annual energy need e.g. purchased
energy (kWh) per building’s heated net area (square meters).

• Buildings net area is impacting also into the assumptions of

the amount of users: and thus how much they consume
electricity and warm water, and how much users provide
energy. Non-heated areas are not calculated

• Net area is calculated corner to corner inside of outer walls

(or the gross area minus the area of external walls)
• The bigger the building’s shell area is, the more probable
are thermal losses because of cold bridges and air leaks
• Thermal transmittance is bound with the shell’s area and
structures
• Building’s outer shell’s materials and dimensions are
impacting thermal conductivity of the structure (U-value)

• Relatively easy way to

improve the energy
efficiency of the shell
is to add insulation
• Solar radiation trough windows is taken account
• The type of windows has impact
• The direction of windows would be impacting too
• Renewable energy sources are taken account as decreasing
the need of the purchased energy
– Solar panels
– Heat pumps
• Ventilation (note: the typical standard use of building):
– Usage times
– Air quantities
– Efficiency values
– Vs Demand controlled ventilation
• Heating net need for heating air
• Heat recovery, if relevant

• Supply air heating is calculated as part of heating energy

consumption
• Heating systems
- All examined and calculated separately

• Heated water

• Electricity
- Auxiliary equipment
- Consumers’ devices and lightning
• Cooling systems
- Only if building have cooling
- If is limited only a few areas, can be left out

• Specific cases
- Floor heating in wet rooms
- Heat-storing fireplace
 5. Information
1. Divide 4. Calculate
2. Calculate 3. Select HVAC of Electric 6. Calculate
Building in Energy
Each Zone Systems Utility and Fuel Energy Costs
different zones Consumption
Rate

• Choice of tools relies on the task of calculation

• Four categories of tools:
• Screening tools
• Architectural design tools
• Engineering design tools
• Economic assessment tools

• IDA ICE, SBEM, EnerCalC, Modelica

• The Finnish authorities
have published an Excel-
template for energy
consumption calculations
and for providing the
energy certificate

• The template is available

free at website:
http://www.ymparisto.fi/fi-
FI/Rakentaminen/Rakennuksen_en
ergia_ja_ekotehokkuus/Rakennuks
en_energiatodistus/Energiatodistus
lomakkeet
• Rakennustieto Oy is selling a
commercial tool MX6 Energia
that is In practise used with
excel.

• Includes features to compare

and visualize different scenarios

• Might help early phase of design

work in case of having
alternative ideas for renovating
of an older building with an
existing energy consumption
level.

• However, in case of planning

a new building, or during later
phase of planning work, values
could be calculated by the actual
design tool
Further calculation examples presented in
the theses of

• Tolonen (2012)
• Holmi (2013)
• ISO standards – an international standard for
energy calculation. ISO 12655:2013
• Variation in base values for variants.
• Sweden: four different climate zones for
energy regulations.
• Norway: calculation method varies between
different building types
• If calculating alternative investments, the building’s location
and weather conditions are to be considered too.
(Ministry guideline is assuming a building to locate in Vantaa.)

• In practise the consumption is not constant but bound with

users too. In case of being property owner, possibilities to
impact the energy consumption of users might be useful to
consider, and consumption bound incentives.

• How can the influence of user be taken into account in the

energy consumption calculations?