The national building codes in each of the studied European countries differ in their energy performance criteria, although their goals remain the same. Requirements may include different primary and net energy use indicators.
Differences in dimensions standards are striking. England and Wales do not set restrictions for room sizes; no minimum or maximum room dimensions have been stipulated there.
Historical Development
European building codes tend to be more intricate than their US counterparts due to centuries-old traditions and an emphasis on architectural heritage. European codes often mandate durable materials and construction techniques for historic preservation; these requirements can result in differences among cities that make working across jurisdictions challenging for construction companies.
To investigate differences in building regulations across Europe, we examined national sets of requirements from nine European nations: Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany (Hessen), Italy, Norway Sweden and Finland. While their goals and main subjects are relatively similar, more in-depth comparison reveals significant variance in systems and formulations between them.
Comparing the building bylaws of various nations allowed us to identify short functional indications and technical specifications for housing dimensions. England and Wales laws establish minimum height requirements for rooms, while France and Denmark do not specify dimensions of different room types. Danish codes define functional indicators and primary energy performance indicators, while French regulations address envelope air leakage and transmission heat losses (envelope components such as window area to heated floor area ratio, specific fan power consumption and ventilation heat recovery efficiency). To provide more reliable evaluation of differences among building bylaws, two researchers independently analyzed all regulatory texts.
Decentralized Administration
Administration of building bylaws can often be administered on a regional basis, allowing different regions to adopt their own regulations and therefore creating variance in construction practices across jurisdictions. This can cause variance in construction practices across regions as well as lack of consistency when working across jurisdictions.
Annunziata et al and Thuller conducted an in-depth examination of national building codes across European countries, and found considerable variation in energy performance indicators even within countries with similar climates. These indicators serve to set requirements on energy performance of buildings; their levels and types can differ in ambition as well as use. Such variance can impact buildings’ abilities to meet rising housing demands.
Energy Efficiency
Most West European countries maintain technical building regulations to guarantee minimum standards of quality for buildings, and most West-European countries possess national sets. While their systems and formulations may vary considerably between nations, comparisons of such regulations may help understand and promote energy efficient building construction and operation practices. In this study, cabins built according to national regulations in Finland, Norway, Sweden and northwestern Russia were evaluated against specific primary energy and electric power demand criteria in order to measure their energy efficiency.
Simulations were used to assess these criteria using input data available during building design (henceforth design specific input data) from blueprints and manufacturers’ specifications as well as national standard input data (henceforth NSid). National NSid are used with each country’s energy performance rating method to calculate specific energy use and electric power demand of buildings.
Studies revealed that when heating with electricity, Finland has more stringent specific primary energy criteria than Norway or Sweden due to the broader system boundary of Finnish energy use indicators, which cover more parts of building energy balance compared with those included in Norwegian or Swedish building codes.
Not only did all studied building codes contain indicators for energy use, but all also included “other” energy performance criteria requiring energy-efficient design elements like envelope U-values and insulation; in fact, these “other” criteria were often more stringent than the energy use criterion of all investigated codes when heated with electricity – suggesting that choosing indicators and criteria in regulations may have a major influence on building energy performance in their own countries.
Safety
Although all European countries share common goals and subjects for their technical building regulations, a closer examination reveals significant variance in terms of formulation. Given their decentralized administration, this variation likely arises due to how these sets of requirements are organized and created.
Dimensional standards vary considerably amongst countries studied, from market-driven logic dictating room dimensions by their purpose to functional indicators and general recommendations. England and Denmark do not limit room sizes while Italy and France set criteria based on where rooms will be used.
Safety regulations vary considerably across European nations. Although most are taking a risk-based approach, there can be notable variance in approaches taken between them – due to some countries using both prescriptive rules and performance-based guidelines, while others rely solely on performance-based ones (Norway has revised its building codes multiple times since 2010 and employs two energy usage indicators while Finland and Sweden only utilize one).