“Environmental Quality of Buildings, on the way to performance indicators”

The environmental quality of buildings is a rapidly evolving issue. Indeed, the HQE Association aims to implement its assessment using environmental and health indicators (see the national test it has launched).

  FILMM* contributes by publishing an educational brochure “Environmental Quality of Buildings, on the way to performance indicators”.   For about ten years, mineral wool manufacturers have been producing and distributing FDES (Environmental and Health Declaration Sheets) to construction industry stakeholders. It is reassuring to see their usefulness for assessing the environmental impact of buildings over their entire life cycle. The study conducted on two houses showed that although calculating the indicators is a new exercise that requires familiarization, it is very rewarding. For the two houses chosen, one on one level, the other with an attic intended to accommodate 4 people, two levels of thermal performance were tested (compliance with the RT 2005 thermal regulation and BBC-Effinergie label) in two different regions (the coldest climate zone and the Mediterranean zone). This therefore makes 8 scenarios. Only the insulation products were modified in accordance with the results of the thermal study. Then, the life scenarios of the family living in these houses were selected from public data. This study allows us to ask the essential questions for building design. Indeed, for each indicator calculated, we can see the relative share of construction products, including insulation, in building consumption and family life. It analyzes insulation in detail by separating it from other construction products. We clearly see that the level of insulation, moving from an "RT 2005" energy performance to a "BBC" level, has a direct impact on certain indicators:  

• Total primary energy consumption: we observe a reduction in this energy consumption over the life cycle of the building between 26% and 34% depending on the cases studied.
• Climate change is reduced by 30% to 38%, depending on the type of construction.
• On the other hand, the level of insulation has little or no influence on the indicators "total water consumption" and "total production of waste disposed of", which are not addressed by the installation of insulation.

  The role of insulation - a very profitable investment When we study the "total primary energy" indicator in detail, we can see that the transition from a regulatory energy level (RT 2005) to a "BBC" level sees the share of the impact of insulation more than double (+121% in zone H1a Mozart house) while the indicator for the house decreases sharply. But the energy "consumed" by this additional insulation to reach the BBC level only represents 54520 MJ while it allows 2 MJ to be saved on the house, or only 108% of the savings. So we invest 2,6 which yields 100!   Find the brochure on: www.filmm.fr * FILMM: National Union of Manufacturers of Manufactured Mineral Wool Insulation     Press contacts:     FILMM DM&A Agency       Caroline Lestournelle Danièle Meunier Such. 01 49 70 89 60 Tel. 01 30 70 68 89 E-mail : lainesminerales@wanadoo.fr                                                E-mail : agencedma@wanadoo.fr