Energy focus in the building process

Abstract: Residential buildings have served as homes for the humankind throughout the years and the energy focus is relatively new in comparison. The interest of the energy perspective has increased alongside with the stricter laws and goals in the European Union and the Swedish Building Board. In multiple cases, the calculated energy usage of the buildings are usually lower than the real time measured energy consumption, showing the importance of performing energy follow-ups of the buildings. The goal of this thesis is revolving around the understanding of the the problems, performance and importance of energy follow-ups in the building process. This study will only focus on the energy focus of residential buildings in the building process, while only taking the Swedish laws into consideration. A literature study was performed as an intention to understand the subject and its problems more thoroughly. The literature study contains the Swedish laws regarding the subject, the structure of the building process and possible failure points, while also looking at multiple studies regarding the difference between the calculated and the measured values. Furthermore, inquiries were sent out to multiple municipalities and companies with questions related to the subject. In the answers from the different respondents, the result showed that both municipalities and companies stores energy statistics in web-based programs and requires real measurements to perform energy follow-ups. One municipality describes that there was a vague understanding of the consequences or penalties of not performing an energy follow-up according to the time-plan. Furthermore, the company A described that there was a lack of knowledge of how or where measurements should be performed in detail and where responsibility should be placed if not everything is fulfilled according to the contract. The companies set up their own local goals that surpasses the rules of the BBR and the companies very rarely breaks the energy limits. Company B has only failed to meet the energy limits once and that project was sold off to another actor. Company B also describes that they have never failed to perform an energy follow-up according to the time-plan and doesn’t know what to do if it would happen. Another municipality refers multiple times to their goals regarding the climate and energy limits, however, the methodology on how to achieve these goals aren’t described. Lastly, the there’s no form of cooperation between the municipalities or the companies. Differences in energy performance, between the calculated and the real, is often a result of many different factors, which is not always easy to define. Throughout the building process, it is of high importance to keep focus on the energy question in every step. Good and correct knowledge has to be present the whole process to give the best prerequisites for a good performing building. Bad energy performance leads to higher cost for the habitants. Loose terms in laws and regulations can lead to bad energy calculations and leave room for influencing the calculation to show wanted results. Good energy declarations require proper measurements and as the standard equipment today provides somewhat lacking data with monthly values, which makes it difficult to study the reasons to higher energy consumption. For better understanding abnormal energy consumption, more detailed values are often necessary. In terms of applicability, this study can contribute to the awareness to the different issues that has occurred from the study, for example the required education and the responsibility in more detail. A few conclusions can be made from this study, the lack of knowledge in terms of responsibility, consequences or penalties and how measurements should be made in detail. Another conclusion are that web-based programs are used for energy follow-ups and require real values and there’s no cooperation between different actors related to this subject.