Thermal comfort and energy performance: Sensitivity analysis to apply the Passive House concept to the Portuguese climate

The need to apply the Passive House concept to Mediterranean countries climate is regarded as being of great importance to support countries such as Portugal to reduce its primary energy demand associated to buildings consumption and thus, devising a cost-efficient strategy to meet the targets pointed out by the recast of the EPBD 2010/31/EU. In this sense, the present research intends to contribute to the implementation of the Passive House concept in Portugal, by means of a detailed study for the Aveiro region and a more broad analysis examination for different district capitals of Portugal mainland. A detached two-storey lightweight steel structure of contemporary architecture was modelled as case study for the Portuguese climate, based on its original design solutions and resorting to the EnergyPlus((R)) software. From this original model, sensitivity analyses were carried out in order to meet the parameters defined by PH standards. The improved results from the climate region of Aveiro, in Portugal, have led to a reduction of the 62%, 72% and 4.4% for the heating demand, cooling demand and overheating rate, respectively (comparing the improved solution with the original as reference). It was therefore possible to meet the PH requirements, proving its applicability to the Portuguese climate and for this particular building technology. (c) 2016 Elsevier Ltd.