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The electrification of mobility is a promising solution to effectively reduce CO2 emissions in urban areas. The integration of electric vehicles (EVs) and solar energy is a practical approach for mitigating the strain on power grids and storing surplus energy. However, the selection of sites for EV charging stations (EVCS) integrated with renewable sources is challenging. This study aims to develop a scalable and highly spatially explicit methodology for identifying optimal locations for EVCS powered by photovoltaic (PV). A novel decision framework for EVCS site selection is put forward, entailing the design of a parametric solar tool, and integrating PV and EV systems to power EVCS. This GIS-based methodology can be used to evaluate the parameters and constraints for EVCS placement, estimate solar rooftop potential, and integrate them into the power grid. The local solar energy potential complements the installation of additional on-street charging points in power substations. Results show that the city centre and a small region in the east are the most suitable locations for installing EVCS in Bilbao. Moreover, the results demonstrate the potential for charging 16% more EVs through a grid-connected PV system without increasing the capacity of the distribution substations of a district in

The construction sector, responsible for 37 % of global greenhouse gas emissions and 36 % of global energy consumption, is transitioning towards a low-carbon and low-energy model. Measuring and optimising Operational Energy and related emissions in the use phase of buildings has entered both markets and regulations. However, the Embodied Energy within construction materials and respective maintenance and end-of-life processes is still in the research phase. Moreover, Global Warming Potential baselines per built square metre need to be defined in the construction sector, integrating operational and embodied impacts. This research has the main goal of identifying for the first time the Whole Life Carbon (WLC) emissions of the average Spanish residential buildings of the period 1981–2010, broken down into Embodied Carbon (EC) and Operational Carbon (OC). For this purpose, first, a regular average and homogenised average of existing European baselines was performed; next, the average Spanish residential building has been defined and modelled with a real sample from year 2013, and its emissions calculated as Scenario 0; and finally, five new scenarios have been compared in order to understand variations in WLC and their EC and OC contributions. This research shows for the average multifamily building apartment in Spain, with a mean net floor area of 73.1 m2, a WLC baseline of 1944 kg CO2-eq·m−2, 30.8 % (559 kg CO2-eq·m−2) being EC, and the remaining 69.2 % OC. In Scenarios 1 to 3, the following are identified: a WLC reduction of 26.0 % (9.2 % EC) by using wood window frames, 0.8 % (2.7 % EC) by laying a wood inner floor, and 16.1 % (1.0 % EC) by insulating walls with recycled cork. All three items are calculated together in Scenario 4, giving a 36.9 % WLC reduction (9.5 % EC). Finally, Scenario 5 was modelled upon Scenario 4 materials, complying with the upcoming European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive as if built in 2021, reaching a potential WLC reduction of

The most recent regulations, as well as the scientific studies, remark the importance of the evaluation of the entire life cycle on building renovations, relative to the environmental impact and economic feasibility, making the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) the prioritizing analysis. The objective of the study is to develop a simplified methodology for the environmental and economic assessment of residential building renovations with life cycle approach. For this, a script-based tool-kit is developed: the first tool optimizes the thickness of envelope insulation based strategies; the second tool is for the prioritization of strategies by assessing their environmental performance and economic feasibility. In order to follow the objective, the development of the two tools is presented: both tools follow a parallel scheme where the input parameters are required by an excel file and the calculation script provides the results automatically by exporting the results excel file. The evaluation provides the quantification of the relative environmental improvement with the net energy ratio (NER), and the economic feasibility by the financial indicator of internal rate of return (IRR). The tool-kit is applied in a case study of a multifamily residential building. The results show, on the one hand, that the usability of the tool-kit can be determinant in the decision-making of stakeholders; and in the other hand, the importance of carrying out a dynamic assessment, taking into account the variation of the results caused by the uncertain parameters that differ in time. Moreover, the tool-kit can assist the development of cost-effective decarbonisation strategies.

El objetivo de este estudio ha sido determinar el grado de confort dentro de los tipos de edificios escogidos y la relación entre dicha condición de confort (por tanto, de salud) y tres parámetros: las condiciones climáticas locales, las propiedades térmicas del edificio y las condiciones definidas para el confort en sí mismas. En este trabajo se han recogido y analizado los datos obtenidos de medidas de temperatura y humedad relativa en los edificios por monitorización. El análisis realizado permite: comparar los criterios establecidos por entes como la OMS, ASHRAE y el CTE como límites útiles para medir el confort; apreciar la notablemente mayor falta de confort en general en invierno frente al verano, en la región estudiada del País Vasco; y observar cómo las propiedades térmicas de un edificio pueden superar al factor clima en las condiciones de confort en el edificio. El estudio está redactado en ESPAÑOL.

Evidence shows that people have a major impact on building performance. Occupants’ impact is especially important in social housing, where their occupants may present greater vulnerabilities, and their needs are not always considered. This study aims to analyse the socio-demographic influence in social rental housing concerning hygrothermal comfort and energy consumption in a case study located in Vitoria, Spain during the first 4-month period of 2020 and 2021 (during and after COVID-19 lockdown). An innovative data management system is included, where the users and administration can see in real-time the temperature and consumption in the dwellings. A 2-phase method has been applied; phase 1 is associated with outdoor climate conditions, building properties and social profile. Phase 2 determined the results in energy consumption, indoor hygrothermal comfort and occupant energy-use pattern. The results show that the comfort levels and energy consumption vary according to the analysed social profiles, as well as the heating activation periods and domestic hot water system usage. In conclusion, socio-demographic characteristics of social housing households influence the hygrothermal comfort of their dwellings, occupants’ behaviour and heating and domestic hot water energy consumption.

The decarbonisation of buildings is a crucial milestone if European cities mean to reach their mitigation targets. The construction sector was responsible for 38% of the GHG emissions in 2020. From these emissions, 11% is calculated to be currently embodied in building materials. In this context, an evaluation from a life cycle perspective is becoming increasingly necessary to achieve the objectives set. Currently, there are different building rating systems (BRS) at European level that allow the evaluation of the degree of sustainability of buildings. During this study, the authors have evaluated to what extent and how the most extended five BRS (NF Habitat HQE, VERDE, DGNB, BREEAM, and HPI systems) in the European framework have integrated the life cycle methodology during their evaluation process. Four methodologies have been used in the research in order to analyse these five systems: quantitative assessment, multi-level perspective, mapping–gap analysis, and expert interviews. Although each methodology has produced different results, the need to harmonise the evaluation criteria at the European level, the insufficient consistency of data software, and the availability of skilled LCA professionals for wider LCA market penetration, among others, should be highlighted. The quality and harmonised data of construction products is required for LCA to give aggregated and transformative results.

Over the last decades, the environmental situation of the planet has worsened. Much of the pollution and energy consumption is attributed to cities, which are expected to increase in size and population in the coming years. It is therefore necessary to develop systems to make them more sustainable and resilient. In this regard, different agendas, strategies, and regulations have been published, such as the 2030 Agenda. The current research carried out a surveillance and foresight process at the European level in the field of the sustainable city, analyzing actions accomplished, ongoing, or forthcoming from 2014 to the present (2020) and coming years. The objective is to identify the potential niches and opportunities for decision making to develop successful projects in this sector. The study concludes that one of the most promoted themes is related to the environment, highlighting nature and biodiversity in cities to improve environmental quality and achieve the decarbonization necessary to fight climate change. Furthermore, society plays an important role, emphasizing the need to promote the population’s inclusion and empowerment. It also underlines the promotion of urban regeneration, which should include energy transition and digitalization to create smart cities, with local circular economies.

In the last decade, several European directives have been established to contribute to the 2020, 2030 and 2050 energy saving targets and impose energy efficiency requirements for new construction, existing buildings and building renovation operations. One of the ways to achieve said objectives is to rely on the most demanding energy efficiency labels existing in Europe, such as Passivhaus, and to implement similar concepts into the national energy regulations of European countries based on a high-performance thermal envelope (high insulation and high-performance windows), high airtightness and high-performance heat-recovery ventilation systems, and solar heat harvesting. This energy conservation concept has shown to be effective for houses with low-density occupation in cold climates, but may cause severe overheating problems in denser collective housing in temperate and hot climates with higher solar radiation. To assess this impact, five flats in three developments from different periods that range from no insulation at all to a nZEB, Passivhaus-certified high-rise are compared in this paper, using data from a monitoring campaign during the summer of 2020. The results show and quantify the strong impact the evolution of the energy saving regulatory trend has had on summer indoor comfort, which may in some cases lead to previously unnecessary air conditioning for cooling and, ultimately, be counterproductive towards the end goals of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse-effect gas emissions and mitigating climate change.

The refurbishment of buildings is one of the main keys to pursue the targets of the European Green Deal, and to accomplish the European Union has applied two mechanisms among others: the European policy and the European Research and Technological Development (RTD) projects. On the one hand, the EU has published the Commission Recommendation (EU) 2019/786 with an assessment framework composed by Measurable Progress Indicators (MPI) that can be considered the main legal instrument to measure the progress of the decarbonisation together with health & wellness, social and economic related targets of the Directive 2018/844, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). On the other hand, the RTD projects also pursue the targets of the EU but following their own assessment methodology com-posed by Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Considering the parallelism of these two mechanisms, the objective of this study is to analyse the applicability of the EU's assessment framework by the RTD pro-jects, establishing a critical point of view of the viability of the MPIs and identifying the barriers and chal-lenges of the evaluation system proposed by the EU. Regarding the methodology, the applicability of MPIs by RTD projects has been analysed in five stages: (1) Identification and listing of the MPIs of EU Recommendation; (2) selection of European RTD projects; (3) identification of the KPIs applied by the projects; (4) study of the concordance of the MPIs of the Commission Recommendation's assessment framework and the KPIs of the RTD projects; (5) evaluation of the barriers and challenges of the applica-bility of the EU's MPIs based on the level of agreement with the projects' KPIs. This investigation shows that although some evaluation scopes of the Commission Recommendation (EU) 2019/786 do agree with high degree with RTD projects, many MPIs present barriers related to the low reliability, the absence of standardised calculation methods, and the lack of data. Besides

El objetivo de este Trabajo de Fin de Master es analizar y evaluar el potencial de las cubiertas de los edificios existentes para captación de energía y usos comunitarios. Las cubiertas representan una gran parte de la superficie construida de las ciudades, por lo que se presentan como lugares que brindan la oportunidad de recuperar el espacio de suelo perdido al construir el edifico y convertirlos en áreas productivas. Inicialmente se ha realizado un amplio análisis de la literatura existente en torno al uso de las cubiertas para usos de captación de energía y usos comunitarios, para posteriormente analizarla en base a un criterio unificado. Con esta información se ha desarrollado una herramienta de cálculo que determina la idoneidad de la cubierta para cada uso en función de diferentes parámetros: inclinación de la cubierta, tipología del edificio, orientación de la cubierta y presencia de edificios circundantes. Por último, se ha extrapolado la información a un caso de estudio en la ciudad de Donostia-San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa) y se plantea una propuesta de transformación de los espacios., Master Amaierako Lan honen helburua eraikinen estalkiek energia jasotzeko eta erabilera komunitarioetarako daukaten potentziala ikertzea da. Estalkiek hirien eraikitako azaleraren zati handi bat suposatzen dute, eta horregatik eraikina eraikitzerakoan galdutako zoru-espazioa berreskuratzeko eta ekoizpen gune bihurtzeko aukera ematen duten leku gisa aurkezten dira. Lehenik eta behin, energia jasotzeko eta erabilera komunitarioetarako estalkien erabilerari buruz dagoen literaturaren azterketa zabala egin da, ondoren irizpide bateratu batean oinarrituta aztertua izateko. Informazio honekin kalkulu tresna bat garatu da, estalkiaren erabilera bakoitzerako egokitasuna zehazten duena parametro desberdinetan oinarrituta: estalkiaren malda, eraikin tipologia, estalkiaren orientazioa eta inguruko eraikinen presentzia. Azkenik, informazioa ikerketa kasu batera, Donostiako hirira (Gipuzkoa) hain zuzen ere, estrapolatu da, eta espazioak eraldatzeko proposamena aurkezten da., The objective of this Master's Degree Final Project is to analyse and evaluate the potential of the roofs of existing buildings for energy capture and community uses. Roofs represent a large part of the built surface of cities, so they are presented as places that provide the opportunity to recover the land-space lost when building the building and convert them into productive areas. Initially, an extensive analysis of the existing literature on the use of roofs for energy capture and community uses has been carried out and then analysed on the basis of a unified criterion. With this information, a calculation tool has been developed to determine the suitability of the roofs for each use based on the following parameters: slope of the roof, typology of the building, orientation of the roof and presence of surrounding buildings. Finally, the information has been extrapolated to a case study in the city of Donostia-San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa) and a design for the transformation of the spaces is proposed.

Energy retrofit of existing buildings is one of the main keys to achieve European Union’s decarbonising objectives defined in the European Green Deal. In order to proceed into them, European policy has been adapted and several research projects are developed. The aim of this paper, on the one hand is to analyse the assessment methodology of the research projects, setting up the overview of the assessed fields and the criteria followed to carry out and evaluate each project; and on the other hand, to contrast these processes with the evaluation framework established by the European Union (EU). As working methodology 18 projects have been studied, firstly characterising by the main parameters and afterwards analysing the assessment followed by each one. This analysis is decomposed into five parameters: the assessment scope, reflecting the fields covered by the project’s assessment; data source, the nature of the data; verification, use of data verification strategies; and implementation of life cycle thinking in the assessment methodology. Finally, the projects’ evaluation methods are decomposed into evaluation indicators in order to analyse the level of similarity between the projects’ assessment and the evaluation framework provided by the EU. The research shows that although the projects have their bases in the EU energetic targets they also cover a wider scope, assessing many fields and combining many sources of data. However, despite the large knowledge already defined by many projects, there is a lack of global and complete roadmap to be followed., La rehabilitación energética de los edificios existentes es una de las principales claves para alcanzar los objetivos de descarbonización de la Unión Europea (UE) definidos en el European Green Deal. Para proceder a ellos, se ha adaptado la política europea y se han desarrollado varios proyectos de investigación. El objetivo de este trabajo es, por una parte, analizar la metodología de evaluación de los proyectos de investigación realizados, estableciendo la visión general de los campos evaluados y los criterios seguidos para realizar y evaluar cada proyecto; y por otra, parte contrastar estos proceidimietos con el marco de evaluación porpuesto por la UE. Como metodología de trabajo se han estudiado 18 proyectos, caracterizando en primer lugar los principales parámetros y analizando posteriormente la evaluación seguida por cada uno de ellos. Este análisis se descompone en cinco parámetros: el ámbito de la evaluación, que refleja los campos cubiertos por la evaluación del proyecto; la fuente de datos, la naturaleza de los mismos; la verificación, el uso de estrategias de verificación de datos; y la aplicación del concepto de ciclo de vida en la metodología de evaluación. Finalmente, los métodos de evaluación son descompuestos indicadores de evaluación analizando el nivel de similitud entre el marco de evaluación porpuesto por la UE y el de los proyectos analizados. La investigación muestra que, aunque los proyectos tienen sus bases en los objetivos energéticos de la UE, también cubren un ámbito más amplio, evaluando muchos campos y combinando muchas fuentes de datos. Sin embargo, a pesar de los amplios conocimientos ya definidos por muchos proyectos, falta una hoja de ruta global y completa a seguir.

The present paper focuses on the architectural and constructional features required to ensure that building envelope renovation are safe, functional, and adaptable to the building stock, with particular focus on “plug and play” modular facade construction systems. It presents the design of one such system and how it addresses these issues. The outcome of early-stage functional test with a full-scale mock-up system, as well as its applicability to a real construction project is presented. It is found crucial to obtain high quality information about the status of the existing façade with the use of modern technologies such as topographic surveys or 3D scans and point cloud. Detailed design processes are required to ensure the compatibility of manufacture and installation tolerances, along with anchor systems that deliver flexibility for adjustment, and construction processes adapting standard installation methods to the architectural particularities of each case that may hinder its use or require some modification in each situation. This prefabricated plug and play modular system has been tested by reproducing the holistic methodology and new technologies in the market by means of real demonstrators. When compared to more conventional construction methods, this system achieves savings in a real case of 50% (time), 30% (materials) and 25% (waste), thus achieving significant economic savings.

The intervention on historic buildings through building energy retrofitting has become one of the current challenges of improving energy efficiency. Nonetheless, this building typology presents certain complexities. Among them, one of the most relevant is the protection on their façades due to the historical and/or artistic values of a given façade and, therefore, the addition of external thermal insulation is restricted. However, at the same time, in several of those buildings indoor surfaces do not present that architectural value, and then internal thermal insulation becomes a promising strategy for improving their thermal performance. Nevertheless, its application must be carefully evaluated to avoid possible pathologies caused by moisture problems. This paper aims to identify constructive solutions for interior insulation of walls free from moisture problems. For this purpose, a comprehensive analysis of a series of constructive solutions based on internal insulation has been carried out through hygrothermal simulations. The results show how the application of water-repellent impregnation becomes essential to guaranteeing the integrity of the envelope. In addition, the combination of insulations with or without inner membranes, such as smart vapor retarders or vapor diffusion barriers, has been evaluated detecting the solutions that best fit the objective. Finally, taking advantage of the great potential of 2D simulation tools, the post-processing of the data has been performed to apply the wood decay model, and thus assess the behavior of a very conflictive point in this type of intervention, i.e., the wooden beam-ends. The results in this critical point have shown how the application of the proposed constructive solutions becomes essential to guarantee the integrity of the element and how the application of traditional solutions could lead to a hazard that must be avoided.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is one of the great challenges that university faculties have to face. Therefore, a multidisciplinary team from the faculty of Engineering of Gipuzkoa (EIG) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has developed pedagogical approaches to apply in construction degrees, namely Civil Engineering and Technical Architecture. Pedagogical tools, such as problem-based learning (PBL) or research-based learning (RBL), and environmental tools, such as the life cycle assessment (LCA) and computational thinking (CT), have been used; in doing so, they acquire a sustainable approach to work “soft-skills” competencies into sustainability. For example, research-based tools have helped to revalorize waste both outside and inside the university; they have contributed to more sustainable industrial processes, collaborative research projects, and participation in conferences and scientific publications. Based on academic results, the designed tools are appropriate for teaching in Technical Architecture and Civil Engineering degrees; however, to demonstrate their potential in terms of sustainable education, holistic rubrics based on in-depth quantitative educational research are required. Thus, to analyze the ability of the students to incorporate sustainability principles in their work, the multidisciplinary team presenting this paper plans to collaborate with psychologists and sociologists within the framework of the Bizia-Lab program of the UPV/EHU.

Current European environmental sustainability standards call for achieving a reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions for a horizon set in the year 2050. It has been verified that buildings and cities have a higher incidence in this regard. It is necessary to have tools for initial assessment that can quickly analyse whether the improvement scenarios put forward by different organisations and governments will be able to meet the goals set at European level. Universities are an important factor for the intended change and therefore offer an excellent environment for testing such tools. A case study focusing on a university in northern Spain is presented, through an evaluation tool using 3D models including life-cycle assessment. Different reform scenarios are evaluated for two key years, 2030 and 2050. The novelty lies in considering, not only the impact of the operational phase but also the impact of the different stages of the life cycle and processes, obtaining an impact value closer to reality. The results indicate that, even with major retrofitting and adaptation efforts, the European targets are difficult to achieve by 2050. Moreover, solutions such as biomass help to achieve greenhouse gas reductions but not to improve energy efficiency.

xiii, 63 p., Buildings are responsible for 40 percent of energy consumption in cities and cities are responsible for 60 to 80 percent of the total energy consumption in the world. Besides energy consumption in the industrial market which has complex dynamics to investigate, residential buildings have a big piece of the pie in this share. To avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change and depletion of sources, energy demand and correspondingly energy consumption in cities should be controlled immediately by every energy con-sumer. In this matter, the control of energy demand depends principally on the actions of the users. Evaluating the social science behind energy consumption is not the study area of this research but the impact of adaptive behaviours to control indoor comfort are main objectives. This study goals to examine the effect of occupant behavior through Design-Builder with hypothetical and probabilistic scenarios which are configurations of Occu-pancy, Heating, Cooling, DHW, Equipment and Lighting schedules and setpoints. Three different building typologies from 3 different cities and climates` building energy performance will be analyzed through the combination of two other variables: thermal condition of the buildings and user behavior. The user behaviors are grouped into two as economic and wasteful. In the end, the comparative results of the scenarios were analyzed. The final comparison analysis confirms the assertion of the study that user behavior effects the energy demand directly proportional; wasteful occupant has the highest energy demand while the scenarios based on the Spanish technical code for energy savings has the opti-mal and economic scenarios have the lowest. The analysis of the study leads to an un-touched area of study to enlarge the scale and examine the impact of occupant behavior at low energy districts and cities to prevent the negative effects of increased urban energy consumption.

Energy retrofit of existing buildings is one of the main keys to achieve European Union's decarbonising objectives defined in the European Green Deal. In order to proceed into them, European policy has been adapted and several research projects are developed. The aim of this paper is to analyse the assessment methodology of the research projects, setting up the overview of the assessed fields and the criteria followed to perform and evaluate each project. As working methodology, 18 projects have been studied, firstly characterising by the main parameters and afterwards analysing the assessment followed by each one. This analysis is decomposed into five parameters: the assessment scope, reflecting the fields covered by the project's assessment; data source, the nature of the data; verification, use of data verification strategies; and implementation of life cycle thinking in the assessment methodology. The research shows that although the projects have their bases in the EU energetic targets they also cover a wider scope, assessing many fields and combining many sources of data. However, despite the large knowledge already defined by many projects, there is a lack of global and complete roadmap to be followed.

Positive Energy District (PED) is a relatively new concept from which many projects are planned, however, only a few cases are currently close to be materialized, therefore, in this study the PED projects in operation and in implementation process in existing districts are gathered in order to serve as a base for future PEDs. In this sense, certain points of each selected project are highlighted due to their relevance within the project development and their replicability potential. Furthermore, intending to learn from the experience of the assessed case-studies, this paper aims to understand the current situation regarding PED implementation to simplify the development of further PEDs.

Over the past few years, urban planners and architects have had to seek solutions to improve the performance of urban projects in terms of environmental impact, quality of life and socio-economic problems, in order to achieve the objectives set by the European regulations and by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) established by the United Nations. The environmental and energy impacts at the building scale are amplified at the urban level. In the case of University Campuses, due to their size, population and activity, they can be considered as "small cities" and it has been observed that their environmental impact is significant. In recent years, new tools have been developed to assess this environmental impact at the district level by a life cycle analysis. Among them, it is worth highlighting NEST, an agile and fast tool used to analyze the baseline scenario and improvement hypotheses. It assesses environmental and socio-economic indicators and serves as a life cycle analysis tool for the built environment at the neighborhood level. The authors of this publication have used NEST in different research projects and they have analyzed different baseline scenarios and evaluated improvements in some cases. The article presents a summary of the evolution of the research carried out, explaining each case of study and the general conclusions obtained. It also presents the research project that was recently started that study the possibility to set up the forest biomass as renewable energy source in the university campuses in different regions, governments and countries. The cooperation between universities and cities to establish synergies and cooperation actions will allow substantial progress in the improvement of the key SDGs for society.; Azken urteotan, hirigileek eta arkitektoek irtenbideak bilatu behar izan dituzte hiri-proiektuen errendimendua hobetzeko, ingurumenaren gaineko eraginari, bizi-kalitateari eta arazo sozioekonomikoei dagokienez, bai Europako araud

Degree-days are used as a forecasting tool to predict energy demand and for normalizing energy consumption to be able to compare between different properties across different years. The base temperature is the main aspect to accurately calculate degree-days. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different base temperatures and their impact on the correlation between energy consumption and degree-days. The base temperature was selected as the standard 15 degrees C for the region, the balance temperature calculated with dynamic building simulations and the thermostat temperature setting as collected by questionnaires. The methodology followed is based on the analysis of 20 properties located in the cities of Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vitoria in northern Spain. The properties are a combination of flats and houses, from different construction periods, tenancies, occupancy and sizes. This study had highlighted the effect and impact of selecting different base temperatures for the calculation of degree-days and the correlation between energy consumption and degree-days. While the use of the balance temperature as base temperature could generate very good correlation, they were not so dissimilar from using the standard 15 degrees C base temperature to justify the amount of extra work required to generate the balance temperature. The use of the thermostat setting as an indication of the base temperature was not as reliable as the other base temperature methods in generating a good correlation to explain the energy consumption on the 20 properties investigated in this study.

This paper reports the indoor air operative temperature and relative humidity outcomes of a sixteen-month monitoring campaign of an administrative area in an industrial building in Tolosa (Spain). In a survey, users reported indoor climate dissatisfaction during the working hours, such as severe discomfort in the conference rooms due to excessive cold or overheating, poor indoor air quality or inadequate response of the HVAC systems. Internal operative temperatures and relative humidity have been analysed with and without environmental conditioning systems to study passive performance and effectiveness of active systems. These two parameters have been analysed in hourly intervals, during summer and winter periods. On the basis of the obtained data, the degree of thermal comfort of the users was evaluated, which allowed a comparison between the users' self-reported perception obtained through surveys and the monitored data. Three different standards were used to assess thermal comfort, namely the European Standard UNE-EN ISO 7730, the Spanish Regulations for thermal installations in buildings (RITE) and the criteria established by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (INSHT). The study has made it possible to detect the main aspects that have a direct influence on user discomfort.

The main objective of this article is to demonstrate that passive energy refurbishment interventions influence comfort conditions of households for both cold and hot annual periods, while they help to avoid or promote temperature-related health risk situations. However, improving the thermal efficiency of the building envelope is encouraged in order to reduce energy demand for heating and cooling instead of considering also their impact on users' health. The calculation methodology to quantify improvements, on the other hand, is drawn from regulation-based standards, which describe the optimal achievable efficiency levels and energy cost savings. The present study, however, addresses how diverse thermal performance variables are (climate, thermal comfort range and occupancy rate), and shows that different thermal assessment standards influence the obtained results. An energy simulation approach was developed to evaluate different scenarios and compare the results. In conclusion, the results contribute to an understanding or to a discussion of the suitability of current energy renovation policies with regard to indoor thermal comfort and temperature-related health risk situations.

European Building Codes have transitioned towards Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) requirements in new constructions, demanding high levels of insulation and airtightness derived from research and standards developed in Northern and Central Europe. The use of these principles in Southern Europe, where solar radiation is greater and building typologies and user behaviour are different, may have had a negative impact in Thermal Comfort and Energy Demand and Consumption. In this study, six dwellings located in a 2018 27-storey Passivhaus-certified building were monitored for a period of 9–18 months in 2019 and 2020. In the spirit of a complete Post-Occupancy Evaluation, a User Comfort Survey was carried out. The obtained data were analysed and fixed-limit and adaptative comfort models were used to assess the compliance of several European Comfort Standards, namely, EN ISO 7730, EN 15251, CIBSE TM:52, CIBSE TM:59 and CIBSE Guide A. Experimental results confirmed the issues reported by occupants in the Comfort Survey, making evident a severe overheating problem which we were able to quantify. In addition to presenting the obtained data and its analysis, this paper discusses the plausible causes and health-related implications of excess heat in NZEB Housing in the Northern Spanish climate.

An increasing number of studies apply life-cycle assessment methodology to assess the impact of a new building or to prioritize between different building refurbishment strategies. Among the different hypotheses to consider during the application of this methodology, the selection of the impact indicator is critical, as this choice will completely change the interpretation of the results. This article proposes applying four indicators that allow analysing the results of a refurbishment project of a residential building with the life-cycle approach: non-renewable primary energy use reduction (NRPER), net energy ratio (NER), internal rate of return (IRR), and life-cycle payback (LC-PB). The combination of environmental and economic indicators when evaluating the results has allowed to prioritize among the different strategies defined for this case study. Furthermore, an extensive sensitivity assessment reflects the high uncertainty of some of the parameters and their high influence on the final results. To this end, new hypotheses related to the following parameters have been considered: reference service life of the building, estimated service life of material, operational energy use, conversion factor, energy price, and inflation rate. The results show that the NRPE use reduction value could vary up to −44%. The variation of the other indicators is also very relevant, reaching variation rates such as 100% in the NER, 450% in the IRR, and 300% in the LC-PB. Finally, the results allow to define the type of input or hypothesis that influences each indicator the most, which is relevant when calibrating the prioritization process for the refurbishment strategy.

User behaviour influences the energy consumption of domestic properties with different range of variations and this has an effect on the results of building simulations based on default or general values, as opposed to implementing user behaviour. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and quantify the effect of implementing user behaviour in building dynamic simulation to calculate heating and domestic how water energy consumption to reduce the performance gap. The results for space heating and domestic hot water from dynamic building simulations will be compare to actual energy bills for a general building simulation technique and a calibrated building simulation, incorporating user behaviour details. By using user behaviour details to create calibrated building simulations, a correlation to actual energy bills of over 90% can be achieved for a dataset of 22 properties. This study has shown that by incorporating user behaviour into building simulations, a more accurate estimation of energy consumption can be achieved. More importantly, the methodology approach allows the user behaviour parameters to be collected by means of a questionnaire, providing an easy and low budget approach to incorporate user behaviour into dynamic building simulations to reduce the performance.

Energy efficiency and environmental performance optimization at the district level are following an upward trend mostly triggered by minimizing the Global Warming Potential (GWP) to 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2030 settled by the European Union (EU) compared with 1990 levels. This paper advances over the state of the art by proposing two novel multi-objective algorithms, named Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) and Multi-Objective Harmony Search (MOHS), aimed at achieving cost-effective energy refurbishment scenarios and allowing at district level the decision-making procedure. This challenge is not trivial since the optimisation process must provide feasible solutions for a simultaneous environmental and economic assessment at district scale taking into consideration highly demanding real-based constraints regarding district and buildings' specific requirements. Consequently, in this paper, a two-stage optimization methodology is proposed in order to reduce the energy demand and fossil fuel consumption with an affordable investment cost at building level and minimize the total payback time while minimizing the GWP at district level. Aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed two-stage multi-objective approaches, this work presents simulation results at two real district case studies in Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain) for which up to a 30% of reduction of GWP at district level is obtained for a Payback Time (PT) of 2-3 years.

Eraikuntza-sektorerako bizi-ziklo analisiaren metodologia estandarizatu arren, ikertzaileek sistemaren irismenaren inguruan sinplifikazio batzuk aplikatzeko joera dute bizi-zikloaren fase batzuk alde batera utziz. Birgaitze energetikoetan, erabile-ra-etapan jartzen da arreta bereziki, energiaren erabilera murriztea baita birgaitze horien helburu nagusia. Artikulu honek etxebizitzen birgaitze energetikoko proiektuetan, ingu-rumen- eta ekonomia-inpaktu orokorrarekin alderatuta, bizi-zikloko etapa bakoitzaren garrantzia ebaluatzen du. Azterketa kasuko birgaitze-estrategien analisiaren emaitzen arabera, garraio- eta deuseztatze-etapek garrantzi txikia dutela ikusten da. Eraikuntza-prozesuaren etapak ere garrantzi txikia du ingurumen-azterketan. Ekoizpen-, mantentze- eta ordezkatze-etapek, oro har, garrantzi handiagoa dute, batez ere, ebaluazio ekonomi-korako. Sentsibilitate-analisi zabal batek bizi-zikloaren mugak sinplifikatzeak dakartzan zailtasunak erakusten ditu, azterketa hauek klima, eraikinaren tipologia, edo aurreikusi-tako erabilera-bizitza bezalako aldagaiekin duten lotura zuzena azalduz.; Despite the standardization of the life-cycle assessment methodology for the construction sector, analysts tend to apply some simplifications in relation to the system boundaries, omitting some of the life-cycle stages. In particular, for building energy refurbishment projects, there is a general focus on the operational stage, linked to the main objective of reducing operational energy use. This paper evaluates the relevance of each life-cycle stage in relation to the overall environmental and economic impact on residential building energy refurbishment projects. The results from the anal-ysis of the refurbishment strategies at a case study in Spain show the relatively minor importance of the transport and end of life stages. The construction process stage is also of relatively minor importance regarding the environmental performance. The product, maintenance and replacemen

Over the past few years, town planners and architects have been facing increasing demands regarding the performance of urban development projects in terms of environment, quality of life and socio-economic issues. For this reason, several tools capable of assessing their environmental impacts have been developed. NEST (Neighbourhood Evaluation for Sustainable Territories) is a particularly interesting one since it permits performing simultaneous environmental, economic and social analyses at a district scale, in addition to evaluating refurbishment scenarios, with a life cycle perspective. Nowadays, universities can be considered as “small cities” due to their large size, population, and the many complex activities that take place on the campuses; thus, they have a direct and indirect impact on the environment. In this article, the authors present the results obtained from the environmental evaluation of the four campuses of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), using NEST. First, the evaluation consisted of analysing baseline environmental impacts of the four campuses, and then, in order to reduce environmental impacts, the authors presented numerous refurbishment scenarios for the campuses, according to national and international declarations concerning sustainable development in higher education.

427 p., 2010/31/EU zuzentarauan zehaztutako eraikinen portaera energetikoaren mugen arabera, eraikinak gero eta energetikoki eraginkorrago bihurtu eta haien erabilera etaparen inpaktua ia zeroko balioetara murriztuko da. Gaur egungo Europako eraikinak aztertu ondoren, eraikinen birgaitze energetikoaren beharra eraikuntza sektoreko eskuhartze garrantzitsuenetako bat bilakatu da. Ondorioz, ikerketa lan honen helburua birgaitze estrategia desberdinen artean aukeratu eta lehenesteko ebaluazio metodologia kuantitatibo bat proposatzean datza. Gaur egungo ebaluazio sistema desberdinen onura eta ahuleziak aztertu ostean, tesi hau zenbait galderaren inguruko erantzuna bilatzeko prozesuan oinarritu da: beharrezkoa al da eraikin baten birgaitze energetikoko estrategien artean aukeratzeko garaian eraikinaren bizi zikloko etapa guztietan sorturiko inpaktuak zenbatzea, edo nahikoa litzateke erabilera etaparekin loturiko inpaktuak zenbatzea? Zein punturaino sinplifikatu daiteke ebaluazio sistemaren irismena, emaitzen zehaztasuna eta, ondorioz, harturiko erabakiak arriskuan jarri gabe? Zein da metodologia honen bidez lorturiko emaitzen zehaztasunaren eta berau erabiltzeak dakarren esfortzu eta denboraren (inbertsio ekonomikoa) arteko erlazioa?Galdera horiei erantzuteko asmoz, EN 15978 eta prEN 16627 estandarretan oinarrituz, ikerketa lan honek irizpide anizdun metodologia kuantitatibo bat proposatu du, eraikin baten birgaitze energetikoaren bizi zikloko etapa bakoitzaren ingurumen eta ekonomia inpaktua ebaluatzea ahalbidetuz. 1963an Donostian eraikitako etxebizitza bloke batean eta mozte arau desberdinetan oinarriturik, lan honetan proposatutako metodologia balioztatu da eta lorturiko emaitzen bidez, egoera desberdinetan aplika daitezkeen irismen sinplifikazio desberdinak aztertu dira. Azkenik, sistemaren irismenaren inguruko analisia egiterakoan eta parametro bakoitzaren informazioa zehazterakoan aurkitu diren zailtasun desberdinak ikusirik, tesiaren bigarren atala proposaturiko metodolog