Influence of building envelope on building energy consumption

Abstract

The query of energy stability has become the key query of the world economic and social system in the last few years. In addition to its high development and evolution of its relationship to energy security, the EU also faces with the problem of environmental pollution, global warming and climate changes. For several decades, it has been recognized that renewable energy sources are the main support of the energy independence of the world in the future. Extensive efforts have been made to reduce CO2 emissions generated by the intensive combustion of fossil fuels, to meet the growing energy needs of humanity. Continuous adoption of numerous directives in EU countries leads to the reduction of existing environmental imbalances on Earth, as well as greater energy efficiency. The building envelope is a critical component for energy losses and heating energy consumption. So it is very it is important to design energy efficient buildings or implement the principles for improvement energy efficiency of already existing buildings. Paper shows the real consumption of primary and final energy in Serbian building, with variable thermal insulation thickness and different windows . A comparative analysis has showed that the improvement of the building envelope can greatly contribute to the improvement of building energy efficiency and reduction of energy consumption. The investigated building was located in Kragujevac, Serbia. The building is simulated in software EnergyPlus, while Open Studio plug‐in Google SketchUp was used for building design. The paper also shows the buliding energy rate, depending on the thermal insulation thickness.