Results overview

The European Climate and Cultural Atlas for Plus Energy Building Research is a tool that allows researchers to gather insights and knowledge about local climatic and cultural factors associated with PEB technologies and PEB building occupants.

Executable files of building simulation models that will enable to simulate pre-defined building archetypes while tailoring the model by changing some input variables, such as envelope characteristics, technological solution sets for the HVAC system and weather data.

An excel-based tool to assess life cycle economic impact taking into account direct costs as well as indirect costs. It allows to evaluate finance/funding schemes in the time horizon of 30 years.

The framework for energy simulation aided design provided a library of custom and ready-made scripting for simulation input and output reports, including post-processing, leading to easy-to-understand and informative data visualization for the design of Plus Energy Buildings. The Data visualization:

• answers targeted questions that are meaningful to designers and other stakeholders;
• supplies clear input data-set reports and interpretation keys to support decision making that considers economical aspects as well as co-benefits;
• is generated from basic hourly output data series of energy gains and losses and indoor environment conditions;
• is open to crowd-source content from energy modeler communities.

This Vademecum addresses all key topics to support designers, architects, and investors in working through the different steps of climate and cultural design. It collects the experience and results of the first direct application of a climate-cultural approach to building and system design, looks at the effectiveness and efficiency of some advanced technologies implementation and operation processes, suggests a checklist with the ambition of making the method used in H2020 Cultural-E project easily replicable by designers and other stakeholders in future Plus Energy Buildings projects.

Four innovative technologies developed in collaboration with industrial partners that aim to optimize energy performance while improving internal comfort for users.

1. Cloud-based House Management System (HMS)

2. Decentralised packed heat pump system

3. Active Window System (AWS)

4. Smart air movement for thermal comfort

The Solution-Sets are combination of technologies already present on the market with the technologies developed within Cultural-E project. They are meant to reduce the design effort to conceive new Plus Energy Buildings, providing pre-tested sets that can guarantee:

• positivity for the yearly onsite primary energy balance;
• maximum CO₂ emission of 2 kgCO₂/m²y during building operation phase;
• 8 years payback time compared to nZEB 2020;
• low actual environmental and social impacts, as evaluated with a LCA approach considering wide system boundaries;
• 85% of acceptability rate;
• climate change resilience to 16 different future scenarios.

This paper assesses technical equipment functional systems aimed at Plus Energy Buildings by considering energy, environmental and cost performance indicators and by carrying out a multi-case and multi-domain investigation.

This deliverable summarizes the team’s efforts to conceptualize both a strategy and an interface aimed at guiding and influencing users’ behaviours within Plus Energy Buildings. This document serves as a comprehensive guide for implementing key strategies to align users’ behaviour with the controls and technologies of next-generation buildings.

This report explores the co-benefits of Plus Energy Buildings at both the household and community levels, beyond just energy savings. It aims to provide guidelines for stakeholders—such as policymakers, real estate agents, building occupants and developers—on how to identify, estimate, and incorporate these benefits into business models, policy frameworks, and marketing strategies.

The study used two different methods for the co-benefit assessment: a direct costing approach and a stated preferences approach.

The report underscores the importance of these co-benefits in making PEBs more attractive and calls for supportive policies to promote their adoption across Europe.

The workshop ‘Co-benefits of Plus Energy Buildings in household and community level’ discussed on the many unaccounted benefits of such buildings, apart from the generation of surplus energy from renewable sources. These ‘Co-benefits’ can be broadly classified as environmental, user well-being, economic and social. Speakers presented the methodologies choosen in the project for the Co-benefits quantification and collected feedbacks on the work done.

The design guidelines produced in the framework of the project, present 7 key design principles for Plus Energy Buildings and offer some reccomendations targetting the different design phases and the technology that have been implemented in the demostration cases.

The 7 key design principles are:

1. Create indoor spaces that are easy to access, comfortable and healthy.
2. Align building and technology design with residents’ needs.
3. Produce more energy than used.
4. Use and store renevable energies.
5. Enhance building flexibility to macimise energy self-sufficiency.
6. Minimize greenhouse gas emissions.
7. Keep affordable costs over the building life cycle.

An overview of the Cultural-E definition of Plus Energy Buildings, followed by some project outcomes and its possible developments facing the evolution of the EU legislation, as well as two project case studies in Germany and Italy showing the advantages of PEBs when compared to nZEBs.

This document provides building developers with a practical methodology for conducting Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of PEB systems, aligned with ISO standards (ISO 14040, 14044) and European norms (EN 15804, 15643, 15978). The document addresses the complexity and novelty of PEB systems, offering a structured LCA procedure from goal definition to impact assessment.

Additionally, the report includes the assessment of specific PEB technologies (e.g., Active Window System, ECO smart air movement, Packed Heat Pump, and Hybrid Storage System) for product developers. It also presents parametric LCA modelling tailored to climate and cultural contexts, supporting future steps in the project and informing the lifecycle analysis of demonstration cases.

The Cultural-E project’s response and recommendations to the European Commission’s proposed updates to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) from December 15, 2021. While the project supports the efforts to enhance building energy performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it advocates for advancing beyond the proposed Zero-Emission Building standard to the concept of Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs) as the future standard. The paper is a call to the Commission to think not just in terms of minimizing emissions, but maximizing positive energy contributions from buildings.​

Key recommendations for the policy development to foster the construction of PEB. The recommendations are drawn from the findings and results of the Cultural-E project, particularly the experiences gained from the four demonstrator cases. They are strongly supported by an analysis of relevant policy at the national level in France, Germany, Italy, Norway and at the European level.

The event highlighted the diverse advantages of Sustainable Plus Energy Buildings (PEBs)  and Neighbourhoods (SPENs). The speakers provided evidence of the importance of a multiple-benefit approach when it comes to design such buildings and neighbourhoods. They also collected policymakers’ needs on this matter and discussed how to ensure a broad application of methodologies to quantify and monetise the above-mentioned benefits.