Discussion of a passive house envelope's performance adaptaded to Bioclimatic Zone 2 according to the RTQ-R

Abstract

The building sector's high energy consumption and the consequent emissions of greenhouse gases has led the European Union to publish, in 2010, the 2010/31/EU Directive, determining that by the end of 2020 all new buildings should be nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). One possible way to achieve this goal is the implementation of the Passive House concept. The aim of this paper is to analyse the efficiency level of the envelope of a Passive House through using the simulation method RTQ-R (Technical Code of the Quality of the Energy Efficiency Level of Residential Buildings). The analysis is performed for the building according to the code's assumptions (naturally ventilated and artificially air conditioned), and using a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery capacity (MVHR). Firstly, the building was classified as level B, due to the air conditioner's high consumption for heating, and, when using the MVHR system, the building was classified as Level A. In a comparative analysis of energy consumption, the system showed an economy of 56.63% for the MVHR when compared with the air conditioning system. Thus, this study has proven the success of the application of the Passive House concept for bioclimatic zone 2 (ZB2).

Keywords:
Energy efficiency; Passive House; Heat recovery; RTQ-R; Dynamic building simulation