Policies and practices for an energy efficient European housing stock

The housing stock has a major energy saving potential and is mostly considered to be the sector in which energy efficiency most cost effectively could be achieved. 30% of all energy use is consumed in the housing stock. The European union has formulated targets for a reduction of CO2 emissions to be achieved by a combination of energy efficiency...

The gap between plan and practice: Actual energy performance of the zero-energy refurbishment of a terraced house

Prêt-à-Loger, TU Delft’s entry to the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 (SDE2014), demonstrated the conversion of a common terraced house to energy neutrality, whilst adding value to its living quality. The house was retrofitted according to principles of smart & bioclimatic design, using local circumstances intelligently in the sustainable redesign....

Heat loss parameter estimation of the Prêt-à-Loger house through calibrated Building Performance Simulations

The calculation of a residential Energy Label in the Netherlands and the payback time of an energy refurbishment are often affected by various inaccuracies between theoretical and actual achieved energy consumption. Even if improvements are attempted on either of them, significant problems occur such as the accuracy of input data for the...

Progress of energy reduction in the Dutch non-profit housing sector

The European Union formulated high ambitions of energy reductions to be realised in the built environment. The existing housing stock covers a major share of energy use and is seen as high potential to contribute to the savings. This should be realised in the first place by reducing the energy demand for heating by renovation of the existing...

Insight in actual energy use in houses as a basis for energy performance contracting

Energy performance contracting is based on the idea that the investments for the improvements of the energy performance of a building through better insulation and more efficient installations will be covered by the savings of the use of energy in the use phase. The external contractor takes care of all the investments costs and guarantees the...

Low energy residences and their users

In order to meet the requirements set by the national government and European Union concerning energy reduction, the EPC of houses will have to drop to 0.4 by 2015 and 0 by 2020. To achieve these target, it is necessary to gain more knowledge about the real performance of current new realized buildings, to see how these buildings can be improved...

The Open Ended City - embracing the incomprehensible postmodern urban society allowing for civil urban places in a nonlinear approach - The case of Yongsan

The Open Ended City is about meaningful conscious but foremost sensitive urban design in an era highly affected by globalization from as well a social and abstract perspective as from a spatial perspective. I explored the current condition of the urban society and introduced a contemporary urban model that is taking into account the changes in...

The effect of energy performance regulations on energy consumption

Governments have developed energy performance regulations in order to lower energy consumption in the housing stock. Most of these regulations are based on the thermal quality of the buildings. In the Netherlands, the energy efficiency for new buildings is expressed as the EPC (energy performance coefficient). Studies have indicated that energy...

Making System Dynamics Cool II: New Hot Teaching and Testing Cases of Increasing Complexity

This follow-up paper presents several actual cases for testing and teaching System Dynamics. The cases were developed between April 2009 and January 2010 for the Introductory System Dynamics courses at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. They can be used for teaching and testing introductory System Dynamics courses at university...

ICESat Full-Waveform Altimetry Compared to Airborne Laser Scanning Altimetry Over The Netherlands

Since 2003, the full-waveform laser altimetry system onboard NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has acquired a worldwide elevation database. ICESat data are widely applied for change detection of ice sheet mass balance, forest structure estimation, and digital terrain model generation of remote areas. ICESat's measurements...

Hop, Step, Step and Jump: Towards Real-World Complexity @ Delft University of Technology

This paper deals with System Dynamics education at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. It focuses more specifically on the quadruple jump approach towards dealing with real-world dynamic complexity. The paper starts with an overview of the System Dynamics courses, situated within the broader curriculum. Then recent innovations in...

Making System Dynamics Cool? Using Hot Testing & Teaching Cases

This paper deals with the use of ‘hot’ real-world cases for both testing and teaching purposes such as in the Introductory System Dynamics course at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The paper starts with a brief overview of the System Dynamics curriculum. Then the problem-oriented teaching and testing approach is explained,...