Solution sets for zero emission / zero energy school buildings

One of the purposes of the School of the Future project is to provide designers and planners with retrofit guidelines for concepts and technologies regarding energy efficiency and good indoor environment quality in school buildings - from simple, but significant energy reduction and indoor environment improvements up to the final target: Zero Emission Schools. The objective of these guidelines is to develop an overview on the available building and system retrofit technology systems for energy efficient school buildings including their impact on the energy performance and indoor environment quality and their economic feasibility. The guideline on Solution Sets for Zero Emission and Zero Energy School Buildings introduces the terms and definitions for zero energy, zero emission, plus energy and passive house and 3-liter house schools as major steps towards these most advanced energy performance levels. Strategies and technologies for the building design, building envelope and building services systems, the electrical school equipment and renewable energy systems that can be applied in school are listed and described, and the option of integrating energy concepts into the lectures is emphasized. There's a chapter full of examples of zero emission, zero energy and plus energy schools from different countries which includes a tabular comparison of the different concepts. Finally, the most commonly used solution sets and reasonable alternatives are presented. Besides the guideline on Solution Sets for Zero Emission/Zero Energy School Buildings three guidelines on Improved Indoor Environmental Quality, Building Construction Elements and Building Services Systems have been written. The intended audience for the guidelines are designers and planners of school buildings. The idea is that municipalities all over Europe can use the guidelines and find useful technologies for their specific school buildings. In addition, the work constitutes background knowledge for further work in the "School of the Future" project.