Nearly Zero Energy Buildings Research Group

1.12.2019−30.11.2026

1.10.2019−30.09.2024

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1.10.2015−1.03.2023

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1.09.2019−31.08.2022

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1.01.2019−31.12.2023

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Heat gains from people, equipment and lighting as well as ventilation heat loss have a large impact on the heat balance of nearly-zero energy buildings. The fluctuating heat gains and non-demand based ventilation operation in intermittently operated buildings e.g. office buildings make the thermal behaviour dynamic, whereas low heat losses enable to effectively store heat in the structures. We still use heating and cooling systems design methods with conservative approach of accounting heat gains. This results in over-dimensioned and sub-optimally operated systems. This project will identify the typical use of equipment and lighting in office buildings and develop methods for integrating it in building simulations. New generation dynamic sizing methods for heating and cooling systems in intermittently operated buildings will be developed. The methods will enable to optimally size systems, improve their performance and accelerate the energy-efficiency improvement of the building stock.

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The oPEN Lab project will contribute to full decarbonisation of the building sector by demonstrating the feasibility of promising technologies, processes and social innovations, leading towards positive energy buildings and neighbourhoods and pave the way for wider replication. The oPEN Lab project will demonstrate integrated, participatory and neighbourhood-based approaches by implementing three open innovation living labs in urban environments: Genk (BE), Pamplona (ES) and Tartu (EE).  Realising zero-emission buildings in existing urban environments, over the whole life-cycle, will require more than stand-alone technological solutions on individual building level, such as insulation materials and renewable energy installations. A successful Renovation Wave calls for an integrated, participatory and neighbourhood-based approach. Innovative solutions are needed to improve cost-efficiency and overall impact of the measures, fully reaping the benefits of energy efficiency, life-cycle thinking and the integration of renewable and flexible technologies.

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"The European Union has set a target to develop a sustainable, competitive, secure, and decarbonised energy system by 2050, and the built environment has a major role to play in accomplishing this goal. The majority of the existing European building stock originates from the period of low requirements on energy performance that followed World War II, and at present about 75% of buildings are highly inefficient, consuming about 40% of total energy produced in Europe. 80% of today’s building stock is projected to still be in use in 2050, but presently only about 1% of it is renovated each year. Therefore, existing buildings have a large potential for energy performance improvement, especially in colder regions. As energy savings are generally proportional to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requires EU member states to carry out broad renovation programs of existing buildings by 2050 to achieve a highly energy efficient building stock and a carbon neutral economy. To pursue this ambition European Commission has set the energy performance into strong focus of the commitments in the European Green Deal. As the EU is striving to be the first climate-neutral continent, a separate strategy “A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives""1 was published in October 2020 that commits to the twin challenge of energy performance and affordability. It is expected that this initiative will set a vision for the short, medium, and long term to kick-start and deliver different levels of renovations of the existing building stock – private and public, with accompanying financial instruments and mechanisms. The Renovation Wave Strategy aims to double the rate of building renovation in the EU from 1% to at least 2% annually by the end of this decade. An integrated approach to building renovation means boosting energy performance of buildings by applying the ‘energy efficiency first’ principle, deploying renewables, preparing for climate impacts, deploying urban green and blue infrastructure, and incorporating circular economy, waste treatment and pollution prevention principles. The expected benefits are broad and include lowering energy bills, alleviating energy poverty, increasing resilience to climate change, improving energy security, contributing to human health, safety, and improved indoor air quality, and providing habitats for biodiversity, as well as boosting the construction sector and, in doing so, supporting small and medium size entrepreneurs and local jobs. Considering the labour intensiveness of building renovation and repairing the short-term economic damage induced by the COVID19 crisis with investing in our long-term future, the Renovation Wave initiative is seen as a major tool for relaunching EU’s post-COVID19 economy. All the money raised through Next Generation EU will be channelled through EU programmes in the revamped long-term EU budget. Here the European Green Deal is planned as the EU's recovery strategy, where the massive renovation wave of buildings will boost economies, bringing local jobs, improving welfare, and resulting in better living conditions for EU citizens. Also, the synergies of the renovation wave with the renewable energy projects will kick-starting a clean economy in Europe. "

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Under the 2014 EU procurement directive (EU 2014) a contract must be awarded based on the most economically advantageous tender. The directive further “…promote the development and use of European approaches to life-cycle costing as a further underpinning for the use of public procurement in support of sustainable growth”. Life-Cycle-Costing (LCC) is one of the basic indicators for sustainability assessment and cost effectiveness applicable in construction. LCC makes it possible to optimize the entire life performance of buildings and other structures. While LCC is not yet used to its full potential – mainly due to a lack of reliable data that can be used as input instead of guesses and estimates. In contrary, the relevance of LCC finds increasing acceptance and LCC will become obligatory for procurement by tenders not only in the public sector. Increasing interest in the construction industry and the understanding of LCC benefits have led to a growing number of companies adopting the methodology. LCC is also being applied by an increasing number of public authorities across the EU. As LCC is widely adopted, the guidelines are being refined. The LCC standards with buildings in focus are: (1) EN 16627 (2015) is developed based on ISO 15686-5 and adapted for sustainability assessment in the European context. (2) EN 15643-4 (2012) is at framework level for the economic performance assessment. Another LCC standard which is more general is EN 60300-3-3 (2017) Dependability management -Application guide -LCC, is addressing mainly machinery and appliances. WoodLCC is to optimise the input data for LCC for wood-based building products. Instead of generic data, the service life of wooden materials and building components will be assessed with novel methods including performance models that account for fungal, insect and weathering ‘damage’ and considering climate, design and use conditions. Service life estimates will be linked to consumer acceptance thresholds of planers, house builders and owners. The novelty of the user survey will be the inclusion of user preference categories and a flowchart for use in the design phase for identification and practical implementation based on the categories. The approach will focus on residential buildings but will be applicable also to office, industrial and agricultural buildings as well as timber structures (e.g., bridges, playground equipment, decking). An additional novel element is a service life scenario for sheltered wood that is commonly considered to be without moisture-related risks – except leakage or other unforeseeable events occur. A tailor-made risk assessment method will be developed for this specific case including modern building techniques and materials, such as CLT and similar mass timber products. A well-known, but still often ignored fact, is that “the devil is in the detail”, i.e., the execution level during the construction phase. Even if the planning and detailing of the building is well designed wrong execution of details can result in premature failure (often because of moisture traps). Therefore, WoodLCC will quantify the time-dependant effect of design imperfections on service life and LCC.

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SmartLivingEPC project aims to deliver a certificate which will be issued with the use of digitized tools and retrieve the necessary assessment information for the building shell and building systems from BIM literacy, including enriched energy and sustainability related information for the as designed and the actual performance of the building. SmartLivingEPC will provide information in relation to the operational behaviour of the building, by introducing a new rating scale, based on a weighted approach of life cycle performance aspects, building smartness assessment and information on the actual performance of the technical systems of buildings provided by technical audits. The new methodologies to be developed, will be based on existing European standards, whereas at the same time, they will trigger the development of new technical standards for smart energy performance certificates. The new certification scheme will also expand its scope, covering aspects related to water consumption, as well as noise pollution and acoustics. SmartLivingEPC certificate will be fully compatible with digital logbooks, as well as with building renovation passports in order to allow the integration of the building energy performance information in digital databases. A special aspect of SmartLivingEPC will be its application in building complexes, with the aim of energy certification at the neighbourhood scale. SmartLivingEPC aspires to develop two parallel schemes, one at the building level (Building EPC) and one at the level of building complex level (Complex EPC), with the ultimate goal in the near future of certification of building complexes, based on the certification of individual units, as well as on additional aspects following an integrated participatory and neighborhood based approach. 16 partners from 12 European countries will collaborate and provide their expertise and resources within the 36 months of SmartLivingEPC lifetime.

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In order for Tartu to achieve climate neutrality by the year 2030, which is the goal of the Climate Neutral Cities mission, it is necessary to completely renovate urgently at least 50% of the existing building stock. This means a great pressure for construction and demolition waste generation. The aim of the project is to pilot solutions that demonstrate the circular renovation potential. Our focus is on the integration of circular economy principles into the Renovation Wave process taking place within the city of Tartu. The Tartu circular renovation pilot is a complete solution consisting of various components. The project solves technological barriers (a pilot for proving the circular use of materials), regulatory barriers (updating Tartu's waste plan based on the principles of circular renovation and agreeing on 10 key steps for the transition to circular renovation), organizational barriers (developing the business model of the Tartu construction materials circular deposit bank and supporting its launch) and building material reuse solutions (bike pavilions). In addition, key target groups are trained and cooperation is carried out with experts from the Norway to transfer their best practices to Tartu and Estonia.

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In the implementation of Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Member States exchange information within LIFE concerted action EPBD project that organises two annual plenary meetings every year. Work is organised under eight Central Teams, from which Calculation and Life Cycle Central Team is led by Estonia through Tallinn University of Technology. This Central Team analyses energy calculation frameworks and related problems which have caused a situation where numeric requirements of nearly zero energy buildings are highly different and cannot be compared in Member States. The scope of the work covers for instance energy calculation system boundaries, calculation principles of primary energy, dynamic simulation and monthly calculation methods, self-use of renewable energy and heat pumps calculation methods. Central Team collects and distributes best practices and contributes to harmonisation of energy calculation methods and requirements and to methodology development.

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DRASTIC aims to accelerate the circular processes of constructing, renovating, reusing, and relocating new and existing products to empower local ecosystems to make the CE transition by implementing Circular Systemic Solutions (CSS), by providing frameworks and a digital platform to assess, trace, and validate the reduction in GHG emissions throughout the lifecycle(s) and by recommending new business models that accelerate market uptake. DRASTIC brings together: (i) 5 different demonstrators with different innovative designs, construction/renovation methods, and technological circular system solutions, a wide variety of typologies (residential, commercial) and thus distinct target groups (investors, owners), offering scale and diversity, spread across the EU, with distinct local environmental, social, and economic conditions; (ii) product and building process and design guidelines including a multi-cycle LCA (M-LCA) and multi-cycle LCC (M-LCC) approach and circularity and sufficiency indicators, aligned with the EU Level(s) framework for sustainable buildings, to validate performance measurements; (iii) 5 diverse functionalities combined in a toolbox with novel data-driven tools, integrated in a common digital building data platform (including DBLs) also addressing transparency, quality and traceability, to support the integration of results and deliverables; (iv) 12 stakeholders co-creation sessions focusing on the sustainability framework and the user-centric circular business models facilitating faster market update of the solutions demonstrated; (v) 23 participants, consisting of frontrunners in R&D and small to large industrial players that guarantee significant market, including implementation in highly visible digital platforms over the last 5 years; and (vi) substantial opportunities to build and leverage additional exploitation trajectories focused on evolving and scaling the demonstrated solutions towards mainstreamed affordable high life-cycle performance solutions, with improved circularity of buildings in construction and renovation.

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EBENTO is aiming to develop an integrated platform for all actors involved inbuilding and renovationsector to provide one-stop-shop to better coordinate and manage Energy Performance Contracting, bringing together the needs from all actors involved in enhancing the building stock.Through EBENTO, citizens will increase their implication in building energy efficiency enhancement and both publicinstitutions and energy communities will be able to identify potential energy efficiency improvementsin residential housing stock,with SMEs and ESCOs support. Furthermore, with EBENTO platform, new business models for optimizing the financial (and, indirectly, other) resources available will be validated: •EBENTO will explore the best financing and collaboration schemes to set up energy services. •EBENTO will study how to enhance current Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) for Demand Side Mechanism (DSM)services and what kind of investment options (grants, loans...) can be implemented to increase the number and impact of energy efficiency projects in the city/region. By using digital tools, EBENTO will gather data from EPCs, financial schemes and energy savings to give to the citizens the requiredtrust for investingin new solutions, and to companies the relevant information to reduce costs and easily replicate the work developed EBENTO will ensurethe exchange of relevant information between the different actors, making the renovation process cost-efficient and easy to operate and replicate. The platform will collect data related to performance contracts and guarantees, devices monitoring, energy savings, building information modelling, users’ opinions and comfort levels, among others.

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DECARBON-HOME provides research excellence in the intertwined and ongoing climate-related and social challenges which necessitate a major transition in the Finnish housing system. The key challenge to address is to reduce equitably the climate impact of Finnish housing and construction, which represent approximately 30% of the total GHG emissions and 40% of total energy use. DECARBON-HOME extends the thinking on the housing system challenges from environmental and social science silos to form a comprehensive understanding and create novel, human-centered solutions to climate-wise housing, especially via renovations. The focus areas are urban and rural; the urban focus is on the suburbs of the 1960s and 1970s and the rural focus is on the peripheral areas. The challenges in these areas result in the most critical buildings regarding climate change mitigation being typically inhabited by the most vulnerable social groups (e.g. elderly, immigrants and unemployed). These impose new requirements for sustainable building and housing renovations, including their material, technological and human aspects. Analyzing the pre-conditions for the wider adoption of innovative solutions, energy overhauls and other mitigation technologies, the project supports and enhances the nation-wide transition to climate neutral, socially equitable, and inclusive residential communities. To accelerate the transition, better understanding and mobilization of changes in individual, institutional, regulatory, communication and knowledge sharing practices is needed. DECARBON-HOME offers a unique, multi-disciplinary basis to understand citizen preferences, social structures, policy-making, technological innovations and economic frameworks. With solid competence from transdisciplinarity, the consortium is well equipped to address these questions and create novel, state-of-the-art research contributions in relevant research fields. With high ambition and enthusiasm toward co-creation and higher communality, several collaborative tools and working methods are employed together with committed stakeholders. The project enhances the upscaling of climate-wise technologies and practices, including adaptation and mitigation technologies and sharing-economy solutions. By developing and testing these low carbon and human-centric solutions to respond to the specific suburban and rural housing problems, DECARBON-HOM strongly contributes to equitable climate change adaptation and mitigation.

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Supervisor: Prof. Hedrik Voll  Co-supervisor prof. Jarek Kurnitski

Mechanical ventilation and indoor air quality

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Supervisor: Prof. Jarek Kurnitski

Heating and cooling solutions for buildings with nearly zero energy consumption

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Supervisor: Prof. Jarek Kurnitski  Co-supervisor: prof. Martin Thalfeldt

Air distribution and heat gains in non-residental buildings

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Supervisor: Prof. Jarek Kurnitski   Co-supervisor: Prof Martin Thalfeldt

Heating system control and emission efficiency in nZEB buildings

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Supervisor: Prof. Jarek Kurnitski

Heating system emission efficiency parameters for energy calculations

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Supervisor: Prof. Targo Kalamees

Increasing moisture safety and energy performance of buildings by using BIM

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Supervisor: Prof. Jarek Kurnitski  Co-supervisor: Prof Martin Thalfeldt

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Supervisor: prof. Targo Kalamees

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Supervisor: Prof. Jarek Kurnitski

Supervisor: prof. Kimmo Sakari Lylykangas   Co-supervisor : Prof. Targo Kalamees

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Supervisor: prof. Targo Kalamees  Co-supervisor: Simo Ilomets

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Supervisor: Martin Thalfeldt    Co-supervisor: Eduard Petlenkov

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Supervisor: Prof Martin Thalfeldt   Co-supervisor: prof. Jarek Kurnitski

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Supervisor: Prof Martin Thalfeldt   Co-supervisor: prof. Jarek Kurnitski

Supervisors: Ergo Pikas; Targo Kalamees

Digital Renovation Passport for Apartment Buildings (Digitaalne renoveerimispass korterelamutele)

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Supervisor: Targo Kalamees; Co-supervisor: Jaanus Hallik

Pinnasega kontaktis olevate hästi soojustatud piirdetarindite soojuslik ja niiskuslik toimivus ning kestvus“ (Hygrothermal performance and durability of highly insulated structures in contact with soil)

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