Effects of the Dutch energy performance regulations on energy savings in dwellings

Effects of the Dutch energy performance regulations on energy savings in dwellings

Guerra Santin, O.
Itard, L.C.M.
Visscher, H.J.

OTB Research Institute

2010-10-26

In the Netherlands the energy consumption of new buildings is subject to performance based legislation, based on the Energy Performance Coefficient (EPC). The norm has been compulsory for almost 15 years, but only three surveys, one of them by the authors, were conducted to assess its effectiveness to reduce the actual energy use. The research described in this paper is based on the statistical analysis of several national databases and on the statistical processing of samples of dwellings representative for dwellings build after 1995. Although the consecutive strengthening’s had no significant effect, the introduction of the energy performance regulation itself had an effect on the actual energy use. A correlation was also found between the actual energy use and the expected energy use calculated according to the energy performance regulation. This expected energy use for heating represents only one component of the EPC calculations and its effect seems to be counteracted by the other factors used to calculate the EPC-level. In addition we found that the characteristics of the building and heating equipment together with household characteristics and occupant behaviour explain only up to 42% of the variation in energy use. This could indicate that most dwellings are not realized as they are designed on paper and that it could be more efficient to ensure a correct realization of the calculated performances than to tighten the EPC level further.

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Knowledge Collaboration & Learning for Sustainable Innovation: ERSCP-EMSU Conference, 25-29 October 2010, Delft, The Netherlands

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conference paper

(c) 2010 The Author(s)