The Cultural-E goal is going a step beyond Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs) towards the future of Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs). The team is approaching this topic by looking at climate and cultural differences in the use of residential buildings around Europe. By the end of the five years the project will have built four new Plus Energy Buildings in France, Germany, Italy and Norway. Cultural-E will also produce design tools, smart technologies, methodologies and policy recommendations, freely available for all stakeholders along the value chain.
Research applied to the construction sector is more and more demanding nowadays in terms of energy efficiency, carbon emissions, sustainable resource use, life-cycle management, and indoor environmental comfort. Climatic factors, such as local temperature, weather, sun orientation, relation with the surroundings are integral parts of the design process because, inevitably, they influence the daily habits and how we consume energy. Studies have shown that a Norwegian uses a different amount of energy for cooking than a French, and an Italian heats his/her house in a different way than a German.
Cultural-E will try to establish guidelines for designing PEBs in Europe taking into account these socio-cultural and climatic differences on order to enable a comprehensive optimisation of value/cost ratio of PEBs.
The project will last 5 years and will build four multifamily housing demonstration cases in:
