We have an economic crisis! To be exact, it is a money market crisis, which unfortunately has an effect on all aspects of life and generates reccesion in every sector of the economy which economy rests on credit.
Building projects have stopped, ventures have gone bust, families are in a very difficult situation – this is how this time period can be described and every action we can save money with receives more and more attention.
With saving we can cut back on expenses, we can make family’s and company’s function more cost efficient but beside all this, we demonstrate a strong reluctance to give up on everyday comfort in our lives.
And maintaining our comfort means more energy consumption.
33% of the EU countries energy consumption is used for transport, 26% is used for industrial production and nearly 41% is used for heating, cooling and warm water supply.
Why so much? Because our houses are inadequate!
In Hungary from the nearly 4.2 million flats there are only about 400,000 where the thermal insulation is adequate to the regulation. From the remaining 3.8 million flats 800,000 were built with industrial technology and so far only a few have been renewed – with arguable success because the improvement of energy efficiency for such blocks of flats shows only when the facade insulation has been done, windows have been replaced and the heating and ventillation have been modernized.
So there are 3 million flats left which are not even near to the expectations. These flats are not very well insulated, they have low market value. They are built from stone, adobe or from old panels which have poor insulation quality. Their windows' heat permeability barely reaches the value of 2-3 W/m2K, the floor and slab insulation is inefficient and the heating system is everything but economical. According to the legislation that came into force on 01 January 2009, 176/2008.(VI.30), buildings are classified based on their energetic certification. These flats are in the category after „C” which means their annual consumption is above 100 kWh/m2.
It is likely that this proportion will not change for a while because the 25-40 000 new flats that are being built will not lift the average. Moreover on the walling of a family house the heat loss is about 40%, on its slab and windows it is near 20-20%. The heating energy demand of a building –beside the transmissional heat loss that gets through the external structure - is determined by the following: changing of the stored temperature, solar radiation, ventilation behaviour, heat energy coming from for example electronic devices. Accordingly, the energy consumption can be improved in two ways: decreasing the loss and increasing profit. Does it sound familiar? It is like talking about a company’s function. However, the above mentioned facts show only one side of the problem.
The other standard global problem is known to everyone: The conventional energy sources are continually running out and are getting more and more expensive. The geo energy sources will run out, the natural gas price needs to be adjusted to the world market, the EU is defenceless to the outside gas suppliers- all this creates an even more uncertain situation in critical times. The main question is not when the energy sources will run out but from when it won’t be economical to exploit?
Our EU membership means we have obligations too
A collective directive about the energetic efficiency of buildings was issued in 2002 and its modification which was accepted in Strasbourg emphasises that we should not support consumption (in Hungary we spend nearly 80 billion on this from the budget) but instead the government should finance the saving of conventional sources and the employment of renewed energy. This already functions in Austria and we won’t have any other choice either because the outline of this modification – thanks to the Romanian EU delegates who prepared this report- has particular dates and deadlines for the realization.
Some European countries were not lazy, they made that step and soon we will be obliged to as well. In some Austrian counties the council flats have to be built as passive houses already. Germany from 2012, Great Britain from 2016 have obliged themselves to allow the building of new houses only according to the passive house certification. Moreover the collective European directive modification would oblige every member country to do so as well. The tempo of the development of passive houses is unstoppable. In Austria, at the end of 2008 they registered 4000 passive houses. In Belgium in one year beside 50 extant houses they started building another 150 while in Sweden the number of passive houses has grown from 200 to 800. Today in Hungary there are 2 certified passive houses and another 25-30 that have about the same energy usage but aren’t certified. (Source: Günter Lang, Leader of the Austrian Passive House Organization)
What will the future bring?
We are in the last phase, but the above facts are eye-openers. The crisis always brings purification. In a few years time those companies that survived and are stable and function economically will build houses that are adequate to the new market expectations and function with low costs. While the market demand will grow suddenly for such houses you won’t be able to sell houses that waste energy. So those who can will built a passive house or start a renovation that results in energy saving, and of course with this end in view makes sure that he creates value and contributes to the activation of the building sector capacity. Decrease the CO2 emission of your house, create a cleaner environment so that the resources that have been wasted so far can be spent on something else e.g. education, culture or our children.
This isn’t a vision and not only us think this way. The Masterplast Group supports this aim and wants to add his work, knowledge, experience and products to this process to help create low energy houses.
