On the impact of energy pricing on low energy design of buildings

Implementing low energy design principles and measures in buildings depends on a series of architectural, structural and legal parameters. A building’s design, as well as its operational patterns, has increasingly to comply with tightening comfort, health and aesthetic requirements. And all this in view of the fact that the application of techniques like natural and evaporative cooling, sun protection and hybrid energy production systems based on renewable energy sources, are not always easily applicable in the densely built and environmentally burdened urban ambient. Still, possible the most crucial parameter for the implementation of low energy design principles, at least on a broader scale, is their economics. The feasibility of such schemes is subject to the retail prices of natural gas, oil and electricity, but the pricing policies applied by utilities are becoming more and more complicated, as a result of the liberalisation in the European energy sector during the last decade.