Field study on the energy consumption of school buildings in Luxembourg

Buildings account for 40% of total energy consumption and 35% of the total CO2 emitted in the EU. In consequence, there is an enormous energy saving potential and the European Union requires from all EU member states to save energy in this sector. Hence, reducing the energy consumption of buildings represents an essential component of environmental protection efforts. Furthermore, the new European directive 2010/31/EU requires that the member states tighten national standards and draw up national plans to increase the number of "nearly zero-energy buildings". Well-planned energy-saving strategies presume knowledge of specific characteristics of the current national building stock. Therefore, the implementation of a process to support systematic data collection, classification and analysis of the energy consumption of buildings will become increasingly important during the coming years. In the field study described below we analyzed the energy consumption of 68 school buildings in Luxembourg. A separate collation of electricity and heat energy consumptions allowed to make a detailed analysis of specific energy parameters. Clustered according to energy sources, the new buildings were analyzed from a statistical point of view. We defined the energy relevant parameters such as energy standards, the purpose of use of the buildings or whether they had canteens. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.