Energy Rating is a crucial consideration in modern building design, affirmed by the new EC Directive on the energy performance of buildings. Energy represents a high percentage of the running costs of a building, and has a significant impact on the comfort of the occupants. This book represents detailed information on energy rating of residential buildings, covering:

* Theoretical and experimental energy rating techniques: reviewing the state of the art and offering guidance on the in situ identification of the UA and gA values of buildings.
* New experimental protocols to evaluate energy performance: detailing a flexible new approach based on actual energy consumption. Data are collected using the Billed Energy Protocol (BEP) and Monitored Energy Protocol (MEP)
* Energy Normalization techniques: describing established methods plus a new Climate Severity Index, which offers significant benefits to the user.

Also included in this book are audit forms and a CD-ROM for applying the new rating methodology. The software, prepared in Excel, is easy to use, can be widely applied using both deterministic and experimental methods, and can be adapted to national peculiarities and energy policy criteria.

Energy Performance of Residential Buildings offers full and clear treatment of the key issues and will be an invaluable source of information for energy experts, building engineers, architects, physicists, project managers and local authorities.

The book stems from the EC-funded SAVE project entitled EUROCLASS. Participating institutes included:

* University of Athens, Greece
* Belgium Building Research Institute, Belgium
* University of Seville, Spain
* Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden