The Cultural-E project aimed to refine and consolidate the concept of Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs), critical for decarbonizing the building sector and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The project focused on creating modular, replicable solutions tailored to European climate and cultural diversity to foster comfortable, efficient, and affordable indoor environments. Key objectives included delivering climate- and culture-specific solutions for PEBs, understanding building user practices to design interventions promoting energy-efficient behaviors, and emphasizing the co-benefits beyond financial savings.
Innovations in the project centered on adopting a social-practice approach to align technology design and control with residents' energy practices. Dynamic building operations that intelligently manage energy use, storage, and on-site generation were vital to minimizing operational costs while maintaining occupant comfort and functionality. The project highlighted that maximizing self-consumption of generated energy is crucial for the economic viability of PEBs, especially given the dynamic market conditions and varying subsidies.
Cultural-E's work demonstrated substantial potential for innovation, particularly in reducing costs through smart technologies and enhancing user acceptance by aligning building design with cultural and climate-specific practices. The project underscored that the initial higher costs of PEBs compared to nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) could be offset over their life cycle through savings and revenue generated by photovoltaic systems. Life cycle analysis on solution sets showed that centralized systems enhance sustainability and that PV systems contribute significantly to environmental payback.
The project developed solution sets tailored to four geo-clusters and tested key technologies like cloud-based House Management System, Active Window System, smart air movement systems, and decentralized packed heat pumps. It also created design guidelines and a collaborative platform, the PEB HUB, for professionals to share experiences and best practices.
Additionally, the project identified the economic value of PEBs' co-benefits, such as improved indoor environmental quality and energy security, which can increase rental values. Investment in PEBs can be made more attractive by boasting about the fact that such co-benefits will raise the value of the property boosting (even virtual) rental value by approximately €17/m²/ year.
Cultural-E advocated for supportive regulations and policies to help PEBs reach a 10% market share by 2030. Stronger legal frameworks for energy surplus trading and standardized disclosure of building energy performance data are essential to fully realize their potential. Occupant feedback is vital for future improvements. Architects, professionals, and policymakers must work more closely with building users to address the everyday challenges they face and ensure solutions are grounded in real-world experience.
