Low Energy Buildings Design Codes and Guidelines

This article provides a summary of major design codes, standards and guidelines governing the design of low energy buildings.

General Codes and Standards

Europe

• CEN TC 156 prEN 15271 Draft - Criteria for indoor environment including thermal, indoor air quality, light and noise. Specifying of classes for environment in buildings: Category A corresponds to high level of expectation (and leads to highest percentage of satisfied occupants in respect to indoor environment), category B a medium level of expectation and category C to a moderate level of expectation.
• EN ISO 6946 - Building components and building elements - Thermal resistance and thermal transmittance - Calculation method (ISO 6949:1996). Calculation of thermal resistance for determining heat flow through the building components
• EN 15217 - Energy performance of buildings - Methods for expressing energy performance and for energy certification of buildings
• EN 15603 - Energy performance of buildings - Overall energy use, primary energy, CO2 emissions and definition of energy ratings
• EN ISO 13790 - Energy performance of buildings - Calculation of energy use for space heating and cooling
• EN15242 - Ventilation for buildings - Calculation methods for the determination of air flow rates in buildings including infiltration
• EN 15241 - Ventilation for buildings - Calculation methods for energy losses due to ventilation and infiltration in commercial buildings
• EN 15316 - Heating systems in buildings - Method for calculation of system energy requirements and system efficiencies - Parts 1&2
• EN 15243 - Ventilation for buildings - Calculation of room temperatures and of load and energy for buildings with room conditioning systems
• EN 15316:3 - Heating systems in buildings - Method for calculation of system energy requirements and system efficiencies - Part 3: Domestic hot water systems (Parts 3.1-3.4)
• EN 15193 - Energy performance of buildings - Energy requirements for lighting - Part 1: Lighting energy estimation
• EN ISO 13789 - Thermal performance of buildings - Transmission and ventilation heat transfer coefficients - Calculation method
• EN 15927-4 - Hygrothermal performance of buildings - Calculation and presentation of climatic data - Part 4: Data for assessing the annual energy for heating and cooling
• EN TR 15615 - Explanation of the general relationship between various European standards and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

Heat Transfer Codes

Europe

• EN ISO 13789: Thermal performance of buildings - Transmission heat loss coefficient - Calculation method
• EN ISO 13370: Thermal performance of buildings - Heat transfer via the ground - Calculation methods
• EN ISO 6946:1996 Building components and building elements - Thermal resistance and thermal transmittance - Calculation method
• EN ISO 10077-1: Thermal performance of windows, doors and shutters - Calculation of thermal transmittance - Part 1: General
• EN ISO 14683: Thermal bridges in building construction - Linear thermal transmittance - Simplified methods and default values
• EN ISO 10211-1: Thermal bridges in building construction - Heat flows and surface temperatures - Part 1: General calculation methods
• EN ISO 13370: Thermal performance of buildings - Heat transfer via the ground - Calculation methods