Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CULTURAL-E (Climate and cultural based design and market valuable technology solutions for Plus Energy Houses)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-04-01 al 2023-03-31
The uptake of Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs) represents a key step towards the decarbonization of the building stock as presents the potential to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the surrounding energy system. However, the concept of “Positive Energy Building" needs to be refined and consolidated.
The Cultural-E project aims to define modular and replicable solutions for PEBs, accounting for climate and cultural differences, while engaging all key players involved in the building life cycle, to create comfortable, efficient, and affordable indoor environments. Cultural-E develops technologies and solution-sets to address energy demand and solar energy harvesting as affected by local climate and socio-cultural contexts, to enable a comprehensive optimization of value/cost ratio of PEBs.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- To define cultural peculiarities related to European climates that strongly impact building energy consumption
- To define a framework for the performance evaluation of PEBs
- To develop climate and cultural tailored solution sets and technologies for PEBs
- To understand the variables that building users bring to buildings and provide interventions designed to shift energy using practices
- To identify and valuate the co-benefits (on top of financial benefits) from PEBs and proposed technologies
- To demonstrate the feasibility, reliability and replicability of technology solution sets
- To promote a favourable European “ecosystem of policies” for the realization of new PEBs
- To disseminate the project results and outputs to external stakeholders and market players
Sets of design-for-assembly technologies are being produced and driven by a careful mapping of European climates, building archetypes and cultural energy habits, going beyond the positive balance by maximizing the share of the demand covered by renewable sources (toward zero emissions in the operational phase).
The Cultural-E project aims to define modular and replicable solutions for PEBs, accounting for climate and cultural differences, while engaging all key players involved in the building life cycle, to create comfortable, efficient, and affordable indoor environments. Cultural-E develops technologies and solution-sets to address energy demand and solar energy harvesting as affected by local climate and socio-cultural contexts, to enable a comprehensive optimization of value/cost ratio of PEBs.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- To define cultural peculiarities related to European climates that strongly impact building energy consumption
- To define a framework for the performance evaluation of PEBs
- To develop climate and cultural tailored solution sets and technologies for PEBs
- To understand the variables that building users bring to buildings and provide interventions designed to shift energy using practices
- To identify and valuate the co-benefits (on top of financial benefits) from PEBs and proposed technologies
- To demonstrate the feasibility, reliability and replicability of technology solution sets
- To promote a favourable European “ecosystem of policies” for the realization of new PEBs
- To disseminate the project results and outputs to external stakeholders and market players
Sets of design-for-assembly technologies are being produced and driven by a careful mapping of European climates, building archetypes and cultural energy habits, going beyond the positive balance by maximizing the share of the demand covered by renewable sources (toward zero emissions in the operational phase).
The European Cultural and Climate Atlas for Plus Energy Houses Design (2CAP-Energy Atlas) has been released and presented to a selected group of designers. The tool will be further promoted in order to provide value to designers, policy makers and researchers.
Four key technologies developed within the project will ensure the realisation of four PEBs demo-cases, namely: a Cloud-based House Management System, an Active Window System, a Smart Air Movement system for thermal comfort, a Packed Heat Pump for flexible and modular HVAC system. The mock-ups of these technologies have been developed and tested. Detailed designs and procurement for the integration of the technologies have been defined for each demo-case. Market transfer potential of each technology has been assessed and actions defined to ensure the market uptake of technologies.
The definition of PEB has been finalized establishing a synergy with sister projects and the EC. A peer-reviewed open access paper on the operational definition and assessment of PEBs has been published on the journal Energy and Buildings. Cooperation with sister projects also led to publish a discussion that sets common grounds and provide recommendations for policy makers to rollout and scale the developed PEB concepts while raising awareness on the added value of PEBs, and the changes to be faced in the construction sector towards decarbonization.
Different solution sets to reach the PEB level have been analyzed for each geo-cultural cluster and for low- and high-rise buildings considering also the marketability and the acceptance of the proposed solutions in each specific geo-cluster. The analysis includes building energy simulation, LCC and LCA. The solution sets are combined with multi-system control strategies to exploit systems’ interaction and enhance building flexibility.
Various co-benefits of PEBs have been identified and range from the user’s wellbeing to the economic sector, the social and environmental sphere. Such co-benefits refer to two different levels, namely: i) household level, i.e. for the building owner or user like increased user comfort, fewer problems with building physics, improved maintenance, etc…; ii) community level, i.e. health benefits, decreased mortality or morbidity, job creation, energy security, impact on climate change, etc. A methodological framework to evaluate co-benefits in monetary terms has been developed and is being tested in two different contexts. This will help the understanding, acceptance, promotion and spread of PEBs among the community.
The demonstration phase of the effectiveness of project results on four demo-cases located in Italy, France, Germany and Norway is in progress. Norwegian demo is in the monitoring phase. Italian and German local demo-case working groups finalized the design and procurement phase and started the construction phase. French demo case is concluding the procurement phase and construction is planned to start in September 2023.
Several initiatives have been specifically addressed to architects, such as 3 sessions in the framework of EUSEW 2022: ‘Co-benefits of Plus Energy Buildings in household and community level‘ workshop, ‘From Net Zero to Plus Energy Buildings: designing buildings for climate and cultural diversity‘ – the Cultural-E project Mid-term Conference, and ‘Unlock the value of Positive Energy Buildings and Neighbourhoods’ – the Open workshop co-organised with the sister projects syn.nikia and EXCESS. Finally, the partners organised the webinar “Replicable solutions for sustainable Plus Energy Buildings: a comprehensive evaluation including energy performance, LCA, LCC and new business models”, which was hosted by BuildUP. The project website is fully operative and gathers the research outputs of the project realised until now.
Four key technologies developed within the project will ensure the realisation of four PEBs demo-cases, namely: a Cloud-based House Management System, an Active Window System, a Smart Air Movement system for thermal comfort, a Packed Heat Pump for flexible and modular HVAC system. The mock-ups of these technologies have been developed and tested. Detailed designs and procurement for the integration of the technologies have been defined for each demo-case. Market transfer potential of each technology has been assessed and actions defined to ensure the market uptake of technologies.
The definition of PEB has been finalized establishing a synergy with sister projects and the EC. A peer-reviewed open access paper on the operational definition and assessment of PEBs has been published on the journal Energy and Buildings. Cooperation with sister projects also led to publish a discussion that sets common grounds and provide recommendations for policy makers to rollout and scale the developed PEB concepts while raising awareness on the added value of PEBs, and the changes to be faced in the construction sector towards decarbonization.
Different solution sets to reach the PEB level have been analyzed for each geo-cultural cluster and for low- and high-rise buildings considering also the marketability and the acceptance of the proposed solutions in each specific geo-cluster. The analysis includes building energy simulation, LCC and LCA. The solution sets are combined with multi-system control strategies to exploit systems’ interaction and enhance building flexibility.
Various co-benefits of PEBs have been identified and range from the user’s wellbeing to the economic sector, the social and environmental sphere. Such co-benefits refer to two different levels, namely: i) household level, i.e. for the building owner or user like increased user comfort, fewer problems with building physics, improved maintenance, etc…; ii) community level, i.e. health benefits, decreased mortality or morbidity, job creation, energy security, impact on climate change, etc. A methodological framework to evaluate co-benefits in monetary terms has been developed and is being tested in two different contexts. This will help the understanding, acceptance, promotion and spread of PEBs among the community.
The demonstration phase of the effectiveness of project results on four demo-cases located in Italy, France, Germany and Norway is in progress. Norwegian demo is in the monitoring phase. Italian and German local demo-case working groups finalized the design and procurement phase and started the construction phase. French demo case is concluding the procurement phase and construction is planned to start in September 2023.
Several initiatives have been specifically addressed to architects, such as 3 sessions in the framework of EUSEW 2022: ‘Co-benefits of Plus Energy Buildings in household and community level‘ workshop, ‘From Net Zero to Plus Energy Buildings: designing buildings for climate and cultural diversity‘ – the Cultural-E project Mid-term Conference, and ‘Unlock the value of Positive Energy Buildings and Neighbourhoods’ – the Open workshop co-organised with the sister projects syn.nikia and EXCESS. Finally, the partners organised the webinar “Replicable solutions for sustainable Plus Energy Buildings: a comprehensive evaluation including energy performance, LCA, LCC and new business models”, which was hosted by BuildUP. The project website is fully operative and gathers the research outputs of the project realised until now.
While Net Zero Energy Buildings have been widely demonstrated, PEBs are still considered pioneering projects for a few, given the high extra costs for both design and construction. Cultural-E strives to increase the market uptake of PEBs by proposing measures to overcome these barriers. The project expected results include design tools, smart technologies, methodologies and policy recommendations:
- 2CAP-Energy Atlas
- Cloud-based house management system
- Smart Hybrid Ventilation System
- Smart air movement for thermal comfort
- Decentralized Packed Heat Pump system
- Ready to use co-benefits estimation and economical evaluation methods
- Eight climate and cultural tailored solution-sets for Plus Energy Houses
- Data visualization library for energy simulation aided design
- Policy recommendation to ease the erection of Plus Energy Houses
Cultural-E has significant innovation potential based on the demonstration of PEBs; with a clear potential for cost reduction, thanks to smart technologies; and for user acceptance, thanks to a comprehensive understanding of climate and culture related user habits. The project generates the following impacts:
- Similar costs in comparison to the nZEBs 2020 as an incentive to erect PEBs;
- Contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in the residential sector by 88% in 2050 compared to the 1990 levels;
- Improved indoor environment quality and user satisfaction;
- Increase of the share of PEBs with the view of 10% market uptake by 2030.
The project team defined a calculation framework for impact assessment at several domains, from real demo-cases to the analysis of replication potential at EU scale.
- 2CAP-Energy Atlas
- Cloud-based house management system
- Smart Hybrid Ventilation System
- Smart air movement for thermal comfort
- Decentralized Packed Heat Pump system
- Ready to use co-benefits estimation and economical evaluation methods
- Eight climate and cultural tailored solution-sets for Plus Energy Houses
- Data visualization library for energy simulation aided design
- Policy recommendation to ease the erection of Plus Energy Houses
Cultural-E has significant innovation potential based on the demonstration of PEBs; with a clear potential for cost reduction, thanks to smart technologies; and for user acceptance, thanks to a comprehensive understanding of climate and culture related user habits. The project generates the following impacts:
- Similar costs in comparison to the nZEBs 2020 as an incentive to erect PEBs;
- Contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in the residential sector by 88% in 2050 compared to the 1990 levels;
- Improved indoor environment quality and user satisfaction;
- Increase of the share of PEBs with the view of 10% market uptake by 2030.
The project team defined a calculation framework for impact assessment at several domains, from real demo-cases to the analysis of replication potential at EU scale.