Driven by growing energy consumption in buildings and by the National Policy of Conservation and Rational Use of Energy, the Brazilian government has drawn up the adoption of measures aiming at an efficient allocation of resources. Maximum levels of energy consumption or minimum levels of building energy efficiency began to be established based on technical indicators and specific regulations. The Regulations for energy efficiency labelling of commercial buildings in Brazil was approved in June 2009, establishing the conditions for the energy efficiency certification of Brazilian buildings (commercial and public). These regulations specify the methods of energy efficiency rating of buildings and include the requirements for energy conservation measures in three main aspects: lighting systems, air conditioning systems and building envelopes. This paper presents the results and discussions on the assessment of the envelopes of ten office buildings from Florianópolis, SC, Brazil, undertaken according to the method prescribed by the Regulations. The classification of the buildings was presented with examples of variations in their construction characteristics. The results show that the percentage of openings in the façade is the variable that has the highest-impact in the consumption indicator of the envelope, followed by shading devices
Energy efficiency; Office buildings; RTQ-C; Envelope assessment