Construction tolerances as the source of heat consumption variability in identical residential buildings

Abstract

Energy demand for space heating of the residential buildings, including heat loss due to infiltration, depends on building thermal properties, dimensions, indoor processes and climate severity. Even if these indicators are taken into account, the actual space heat consumption in buildings never coincides with its demand value calculated, this is because of apart from such highly influencing factors as variation in thermal properties and dimensions, specified in technical documents, quality of works, building maintenance, and behavior of residents are rather indeterminate, not reflected in heat loss calculation norms and not considered at the building design phase. As buildings become less energy consuming, factors that were not taken into account in previous years become more important. The paper concerns thermal energy consumption in residential buildings. Heat consumption data of 2280 buildings are compared.