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The term energy poverty is used to describe a situation of a household not able to satisfy socially and materially the required levels of its energy services. Energy and fuel poverty is an increasing problem in the European Union. Although the specific conditions vary from country to country the drivers defining fuel and energy poverty are similar in all Europe. This paper aims to present the state of the art regarding the energy demand and indoor environmental quality of low income households in Europe. The characteristics of this specific population group are presented including details on the specific energy consumption, the indoor comfort and finally the impact of the specific living conditions on the occupants' health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cool roof technology is an energy efficient, financially viable and sustainable solution for mitigating heat islands and reducing building energy consumption for cooling. An EU supported project called Cool Roofs has achieved to promote this technology in the EU by the implementation of an Action Plan. The work is developed in four axes, technical, market, policy and end-users. The Action Plan is steered by the development of the European Cool Roof Council that brings together all related stakeholders. The main results of the project include the creation of the European Cool Roof Council (ECRC), five cool roof pilot studies, a database of cool roofing materials, a handbook and a toolkit to assist the better understanding of the technical aspects of the technology, a market promotion plan, a proposal for a successful strategy to overcome possible policy barriers and engage with key stakeholders who could support and accelerate the creation of an EU policy and regulatory friendly environment to cool roofs, the organization of workshops and seminars and other actions of dissemination. This paper presents the main achievements at EU level regarding the establishment of cool roofs as heat island mitigation strategy and a measure for reducing cooling loads. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To check the compliance of a building with regulations, evaluate the efficiency of retrofit, or even label a building one would in most cases perform a comparison of a number of building qualities.Within the framework of the European Joule–Thermie OFFICE project, a multicriteria rating methodology was developed for this purpose, based on a rating method that uses principal component analysis, and a ranking method that uses a partial aggregation technique. The aim of this methodology is to rate or to rank office buildings and retrofit scenarios of the same building according to an extended list of parameters, including:

OFFICE was a research project, partly funded by the CEC, dealing with the passive retrofitting of office buildings to improve their energy performance and indoor working conditions. The project was coordinated by the University of Athens with the participation of organizations and research institutes from eight European countries. The aim of the project was to develop global retrofitting strategies, tools and design guidelines in order to promote successful and cost-effective implementation of passive solar and energy efficient retrofitting measures to office buildings. Within the frame of the project, 10 office buildings located in different climatic zones around Europe were studied extensively. Energy audits and monitoring activities, specific experiments as well as an assessment of the potential of proposed retrofitting scenarios were performed for each building.The final deliverables of the project include: (a) case studies presenting high-quality examples of representative retrofitted office buildings in various parts of Europe; (b) a rating methodology classifying office buildings according to their energy consumption, CO2 production and indoor thermal and visual comfort; (c) an Atlas describing the technical and economical potential for energy conservation of selected retrofitting scenarios for defined types of office buildings in different climatic zones of Europe and (d) Design Guidelines, performance criteria and methodologies for best practice giving credit for renewable energy sources incorporated into office buildings, all presented in the form of a Handbook. Results from the assessment of the potential of various retrofitting scenarios proposed for each case study are included in the Handbook in the form of brochures.This paper gives an analytical description of the activities carried out within the frame of the project and describes the resulting final deliverables. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Within the framework of OFFICE research project the energy conservation potential of combined retrofitting actions was investigated for five building types in four different climatic regions in the European continent. The studied actions involve interventions on the building envelope, HVAC and artificial lighting systems as well as integration of passive components for heating and cooling. Interventions affecting the performance of the building in the global aspect were also assessed.The potential of retrofitting actions proposed for each building type was assessed through energy simulations using high-accuracy computer models and climatic data from 10 locations in South Mediterranean, Continental, Mid-Coastal and North Coastal Europe. Analysis of the results revealed common trends in the energy performance of different building types and permitted to extract information on the most suitable retrofitting interventions in each. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]