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Research has shown that glazed buildings can have higher energy use and are more prone to overheating than other types of buildings. However, few studies have explored the performance of glazed buildings in cold climates. This article aims to evaluate the energy and indoor thermal performance of a high-rise residential building with glazed façades and balconies under Nordic climatic conditions, through a parametric study. Dynamic, whole-year simulations are used to evaluate the impact of four design parameters (with and without glazed balconies, type of balcony glazing, window to wall ratio, and building location within the Nordic region) on the energy and indoor thermal performance of the building. The results show that the building without glazed balconies outperformed that with glazed balconies. Changing from single- to double-pane glazing also helped to reduce energy use and overheating, as did lowering the window-to-wall ratio. Overheating of apartments was found to occur during the summer in five of the six locations simulated, which suggests that solar control strategies might be needed for glazed buildings even in a Nordic climate. This study highlights the importance of further research on glazed residential buildings, which are becoming more common in contexts subject to such climates.

Adopting energy efficiency strategies in residential buildings are beneficial as these not only improve the energy performance but also improves the indoor thermal climate and minimizes the greenhouse gas emissions. There exist numerous studies on energy efficiency strategies and their influence on indoor thermal climate in residential buildings in cold climates. However, there is a lack of documented and systematic studies that explicitly investigated the selection of appropriate energy efficiency strategies and their impact on the indoor thermal climate in residential buildings in a subarctic climate. Moreover, the impact of such energy efficiency strategies on the life cycle energy use of buildings has not been given appropriate attention in the existing literature. Due to the extreme climate conditions in a subarctic climate – severe cold and dark winter with heavy snow and mild short summer – buildings require a considerable amount of heating energy to maintain a comfortable temperature indoors. Therefore, it is important to adopt energy efficiency strategies that can help obtain operational and life cycle energy savings along with a better indoor thermal climate. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of different energy efficiency strategies on energy use and thermal indoor climate of three selected case study residential buildings in a subarctic climate. Three research questions were formulated: (1) What is the impact of evaluated energy‐efficiency strategies on the operational energy use?, (2) What is the impact of evaluated energy‐efficiency strategies on the life‐cycle energy use?, and (3) What is the impact of evaluated energy‐efficiency strategies on the thermal indoor climate? To address research questions 1 and 3, implemented energy‐efficiency strategies in two low‐energy buildings were evaluated using measured energy data and dynamic building energy and indoor climate simulations. To address research question 2, different combinations of ene

As the operational energy use in buildings contributes highly to the total energy used and greenhouse gases emitted in the cold climate regions of Europe, buildings which are more energy-efficient and less carbon-intensive during operation are key to meet sustainability objectives in these regions. Yet, research shows that the practice of passive or low-energy buildings in the sub-arctic climate of northern Sweden is comparatively less than in the southern region. Moreover, previous studies did not explicitly examine the performance of low energy buildings in sub-arctic climate in relation to established building energy efficiency standards. Consequently, knowledge regarding the energy performance of low-energy buildings in such climate is limited. Therefore, the aim is to evaluate the performance, in terms of indoor temperature and energy use for heating, domestic hot water and electricity of a new-built passive house titled “Sjunde Huset” in the sub-arctic town of Kiruna. It is Sweden’s northernmost house designed to fulfil the Swedish passive-house criteria of a maximum heat loss factor of 17 W/m2 and a maximum annual energy use of 63 kWh/m2. The implemented passive design strategies include a highly insulated, compact and airtight building envelope with a vestibule, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and renewable energy production through photovoltaic solar cells. The house is connected to district heating and is equipped with energy-efficient appliances to allow low occupant energy use. Ongoing performance evaluation is based on building simulation and measurements of energy and temperature in different zones of the building. Energy performance deviations between occupied and non-occupied zones are explored through internal heat gain evaluations. The indoor temperature is also evaluated to assess the temperature variations throughout the year. The ongoing research further evaluate a comparative simulated and measured energy analysis of heating, hot wate