Energy Efficient Buildings Against Pollution

Most buildings in Italy are old, and this is certainly not good as far as energy saving is concerned

. Old buildings, indeed, might have frames, doors and windows that cannot but make heat loss easier, which results in an increase of energy consumption to warm up and cool rooms. Moreover, in many cases not only buildings, but also household appliances are old: fridges that consume much more than the newest ones, obsolete heating equipmentsall this makes pollution, as well as costs and bills, increase.

Renewing and building following new rules has become the moral imperative of these days, an evidence of this being given by the laws governing the matter. Some years ago the obligation of submitting to municipalities an energy performance certificate of both newly built and existing buildings have entered into force in Italy. The decree 192 of 2005, moreover, which was issued following an EU directive, has provided very severe laws as far as energy saving is concerned, and has introduced energy performance certificates in Italy, not only for household appliances, but also for houses and buildings. This means that buildings have to be classified, according to precise standards, in different energy efficiency classes, from class A (the best one) to class G. Class A buildings produce less than 30 Kwh/mq a year, class B 31 to 50 Kwh/mq a year, class C 51 to 70 Kwh/mq a year, class D 71 to 90, class E 91 to 120, class F 121 to 160, class G over 160 Kwh/mq a year. The energy performance certificates of buildings are made checking the building insulation and the quality of energy-efficiency installations; on the energy class of the building depends also its value on the market. Heating, in particular, is one of the factors that most affect household costs: it is estimated that 53% of the costs of a building comes from that. Thus living in an energy efficient house or apartment also means saving a lot of money. The search for new materials to reduce heat loss goes on, as well as the search for new heating plants and insulation techniques.

However, Italy is certainly not alone in this environmental challenge: after the Copenhagen summit, both the States and other European countries have set important objectives. While Obama promised that in 20 years time all the building in the States will be eco-friendly, the goal of the European Union is having exclusively zero-emission buildings before 2020. These objectives are certainly ambitious, but possible to reach, as evidenced also by the cases of cities like Stockholm and Hamburg, which have succeeded in drastically reducing CO2 emissions. And the situation of our cities definitely does not allow us to postpone the matter again.

by: Michele de Capitani

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