Energy Consumption in Buildings. Performance Breakdown Analysis Considering the Building Services Efficiency and the Usage Pattern

The paper represents a detailed analysis of the annual specific energy consumption’s variation according to the efficiency of the building’s utility services, the building’s usage pattern, the architectural concept and the thermal performance of the construction materials that make up the envelope. The methodology used to evaluate the energy consumption in a building is based on the degree-day concept, considering the latest meteorological data for the geographical locations considered. The results of the analysis performed on a building configured considering different hypothesis for the design choices and usage patterns are graphically presented to emphasize the weighing of the different factors that contribute to the annual energy consumption and to emphasize the way in which these weightings are changing along with each hypothesis.