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Tabula is a European project subsidized by the European Intelligent Energy program based on Energy Efficiency.
We find it interesting to rescue and remember an international project that at the time had a lot of repercussion based on the Energy Efficiency of Residential Buildings and that is currently so fashionable.
What is Tabula?
The EEI-TABULA project is at European level. Each participating country established a typological classification of buildings based on their energy characteristics. The project mainly focused onresidential buildings, but non-residential are also included. Each model building represents a certain construction period and a building size for each country. The main result of the project is an interactive web tool that allows the use of the typological classification established for different applications such as energy advice, the evaluation of a portfolio of buildings, the evaluation of the building stock of a country or the comparison of the different building parks between different European countries.
What is the typological classification of buildings?
In the TABULA project on energy efficiency, special emphasis is placed on the energy evaluation of buildings and on improving their efficiency, in this way, the concept of project typology focuses on the parameters related to energy consumption, the main are:
- Building construction period
- Building size: Detached single-family houses, single-family row houses, multi-family buildings or apartment blocks.
These two parameters constitute the axes of the typological matrix of buildings. There are other parameters in a building that also have an influence on energy consumption and that must be considered in the classification:
- Type and age of air conditioning equipment.
- Regional location: Building features related to energy may vary from region to region. With this section, those countries that have a wide range of climatic zones can make a distinction between the different regions either by adding special classes or by establishing complete typologies for each region.
The structure and characteristics of the typologies of each country are set out as follows:
- A"Matrix of buildings" which gives an overview of the rates set in the classification.
- A"Individual file" for each building type in which the thermal properties are reflected (type of construction, transmittances of the thermal envelope, air conditioning systems); the appropriate saving measures for each constructive element and the facilities (for example the necessary insulation thickness, new transmittances, efficient air conditioning systems) and the potential savings.
Tabula online tool
An online application has been created for the TABULA concept aimed at experts in building energy efficiency from all over Europe. The tool offers the option of interactively exploring the different characteristics of residential building typologies and easily understanding the calculation procedure used.
The TABULA web tool fulfills the following functions:
- Visualization of the typological classifications of the different countries.
- Consultation of the characteristics assigned to each type of building, both the construction characteristics and the heating and sanitary hot water systems that have been assigned.
- Calculation of energy demand and consumption for each type of building based on the established common calculation method and based on the calibration established for each country according to the available data.
- Calculation of energy savings for each type of building in relation to two levels of energy improvement measures, a standard level and an advanced level.
- Possibility of variations within each type depending on the construction systems and assigned facilities.
The tool is available at the following link… https://webtool.building-typology.eu/
How can the building typologies established in TABULA be used?
1. Use in the field of energy advice
A building typology can be used by consultants for initial energy advice to homeowners as an overview of the energy efficiency of a building similar to theirs. Additionally, typologies can be used as a set of example buildings within software comparison studies or for grant program evaluation.
2. Use in the economic evaluation of a portfolio of buildings
A building typological classification is a useful instrument for real estate companies seeking to assess the energy efficiency of their building portfolio. It offers the possibility of supplying a wide range of information for the different types of buildings and evaluating their impact on the population.
3. Use in the evaluation of the residential building stock of a country
A typological classification at the national level can be used as a model to approximate the energy consumption of a country's residential building stock. For this it would be necessary to know:
- Frequency of the different typologies and facilities;
- Frequency of the rehabilitation measures adopted in each country;
- Current consumption of the housing stock to compare it with the calculated values.
Publications
The complete list of publications made in the framework of the TABULA project is available at… HERE.
In the framework of the TABULA project, an international symposium on building typologies was held in May 2012. Speakers' presentations can be found at
