Heating energy and peak-power demand in a standard and low energy building

Building energy efficiency legislation has traditionally focused on space heating energy consumption. This has led to a decrease in energy consumption, especially in space heating. However, in the future when more renewable energy is used both on site and in energy systems, the peak energy demand becomes more important with respect to CO2 emissions and energy security. In this study it was found out the difference between space heating energy consumption was 55%–62% when a low energy and standard building were compared. However, the difference in peak energy demands was only 28%–34%, showing the importance of paying attention to the peak demands as well.