1.1 User behaviourMany reservations against energy conservation and renewable energies result from lack ofknowledge and ignorance on this subject in the different social, age and professionalgroups. The user behaviour has a strong influence on the energy performance ofbuildings, it can increase or decrease the energy consumption for heating and lighting bymore than 50 %. Additionally it can influence the indoor comfort. A change to better userbehaviour is a no-cost measure for the building owner and will therefore be supported bythem.

1.1. Depletion of oil reserves and global warming provide significant reasons to improveenergy management.1.2. UK final energy consumption by sector 2001 (Energy Consumption in the UnitedKingdom DTi)?? Services 18%?? Industry 25%?? Domestic 31%?? Transport 26%Facilities Managers have direct influence in the Services and Industry Sectorstherefore up to 43% of total energy consumption. There is indirect influence intothe other sectors since the examples of good energy management at work willoverflow into other actions.1.3. Building performance what performance?

In most graphs showing sector-by-sector energy use, buildings do not appear to have themost dominating role. But it has. Contrary to this, buildings probably account for almosthalf of the global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, if we include the productionof building materials, the energy needed during the building process, the life span energyuse of buildings and the energy demanding demolishing phase.As a result, the building sector will be put more and more in the centre. The pressure onthe building sector to develop a smarter energy system will increase.

In the frame of the SARA project – Sustainable Architecture applied to Replicable public Access buildings – the Catalan Energy Institute ICAEN carried out different training and dissemination activities taking advantage of synergies with activities and ma

The EU Member States (MS) have been gradually transposing and implementing theEnergy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) into their own national legislation sincethe Directive was adopted in January 2003. The EPBD is the most significant measureadopted so far by the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.A main objective of the EPBD is to improve the energy performance of the Europeanbuilding stock. The EPBD proposes certain measures that encourage energy efficiencyimprovements existing large buildings.

The Integrated Project SARA in the 6th Framework Programme of the EuropeanCommission (EC) aimed to support the construction of seven sustainable, cost effective,high energy performed public-access eco-buildings which are immediately replicable atlarge scale in many locations. Therefore, seven demonstration buildings in six EU MemberStates (A, E, F, I, SI, UK) and one new Independent State (UZ) were selected.An Expert Technical Advice Service (ETAS) provided horizontal knowledge transferbetween eco-buildings in order to obtain efficient integration.

Innovative technologies and low energy solutions in the building industry are well known,but are often not preferred in refurbishment of public buildings. Lack of knowledge, costand maintenance are some of the known restraints.The BRITA in PuBs project is an EU-supported integrated demonstration and researchproject that aims to increase the market penetration of innovative and cost-effective retrofitsolutions to improve energy efficiency and implement renewable energy in public buildingsall over Europe.

The aim of the DEMOHOUSE project is to develop minimum standards andrecommendations for energy-efficient and sustainable renovation of social housingestates. Within this, the Decision Support Tool is one of the final results and usesknowledge gathered throughout the DEMOHOUSE project. In many European countries,social housing is owned by housing associations, municipalities or housing co-operations.To facilitate the decision makers in these organisations a simple instrument which helps toselect relevant information for making decisions is developed within the DEMOHOUSEproject.

SARA aims to construct sustainable, cost effective, high energy performance, publicaccesseco-buildings that are immediately replicable at large scale in many locations.

Control related problems significantly contribute to high energy consumption in office andcommercial buildings. Today, building management systems (BMS) are commonlydesigned to control the technical building equipment in order to reach comfortable climaticconditions in the controlled spaces. This setpoint orientated control strategy does normallynot contain any active supervisory instruments to control the energy consumption of thebuilding.