Low energy building, passive and even positive housing: tomorrow’s houses are already in the making.
Increasing environmental awareness, amplified by stricter regulations, is pushing the entire building industry to reinvent its design and construction methods.

Codename: RT 2012 | A land for eco-builders | Ecological and economical?

Codename: RT 2012
New thermal regulations (RT – Régulations termiques in French) will apply as from the 1st of January 2011 for public buildings and those from the tertiary sector, and from the 1st of January 2013 for the residential sector. Adopted by the Grenelle Environment Forum to replace the currently applicable RT 2005, the new “bible” for energetic performance marks a decisive change. For the first time ever, it defines a consumption threshold: 50kWh/m2/year of primary energy, compared to 150kWh/m2/year for today’s new buildings and an average of 260kWh/m2/year for existing properties. This threshold corresponds to the current LEB “Low Energy Building” standard, according to the “BBC Effinergie” label.

A land for eco-builders
In Lower Normandy, a number of initiatives and organisations are helping to support and to organise the eco-construction sector. A quick overview.
Information points Born from the partnership between the ADEME (French Agency for Environment and Energy Management), the Lower Normandy Regional Council and the European Commission (ERDF), Espaces Info Energie information points (www.eie-basse-normandie.org) offer free and totally independent information on energy for housing: financial support, equipment and new technologies, energy performance diagnosis, eco-materials, energy costs… The aim of Lower Normandy’s ARPE (Regional Association for the Promotion of Eco-Construction) is to reunite and network the various players involved in the various aspects of eco-construction: architects, builders, craftsmen, farmers, eco-construction and eco-citizen associations.
Support for private initiatives The “Chèque éco-énergie” (eco-energy cheque) is a Lower Normandy Regional Council initiative aimed at helping private home owners to improve their energetic efficiency. Work is required to be carried out by a Council-approved company. An “eco-materials” bonus is also granted for the use of insulation materials of animal or plant origin, and duly listed in the database maintained by the Espace Info Energie des 7 Vents du Cotentin (www.èvents.fr).
A fund for community housing The FORES (Regional Fund for Social Eco-housing) is a Lower Normandy Regional Council fund in support of social lessors and players from the construction sector committed to building or renovating residential premises according to current energy performance recommendations. The fund has been approached to support over 1,000 residential premises throughout the region’s 3 départements, for a total investment of €5M.
Support for the construction sector The ARCENE (Normandy Regional Association for Environmental Construction) reunites the French State, the Lower Normandy Regional Council, the ADEME (French Agency for Environment and Energy Management), the FRB (Regional Building Federation), the Confederation of Small Construction Companies (CAPEB), the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (Deposit and Consignment Office) and the Regional Association for Social Housing. The association’s mission is to create synergies between the region’s associated players in order to develop the eco-construction industry: disseminating good practice, improving skills, promoting and developing sectors involved in environmental quality materials and equipment.
Research / enterprise gateways The MIRIADE - Regional Mission for Innovation and Economic Development Action (www.miriade-innovation.fr) organises R&D Gateways aimed at generating envounters between businesses and researchers: such contact led to over 100 appointments during gateways focusing on eco-technologies held in June 2009, and on eco-energies held in February 2010. MIRIADE also recently completed a study on eco-energies.
Improving skills Launched during the Assises Régionales (regional conference) on sustainable development jointly organised in December 2009 by the Regional Council and the University of Caen, the IRD2 (Regional Institute for Sustainable Development) should lead to burgeoning exchange between players from research, training and territorial development and, in due course, the establishment of significant expertise in sustainable development. Several initiatives are in the making: the creation of a training inventory, a census on existing skills, the organisation of themed workshops and scientific symposiums, the establishment of a regional experts’ committee, etc.
An eco-construction cluster The Lower Normandy Regional Council and Caen La Mer are behind a project aimed at creating a cluster devoted to eco-construction and renewable energy within the former site of the 18th Signal Regiment in Bretteville-sur-Odon (Koenig quarter). This cluster will welcome businesses from the construction and public works sector looking to develop eco-technologies, apprenticeship and continuing education schools, an enterprise zone and a business centre for innovative projects. Under the same impetus, the Region has also requested to join the future ECOVIA Competitiveness Cluster devoted to eco-technologies.

Ecological and economical?
But can an eco-friendly house also be economical? In partnership with Knauf, ArcelorMittal and EDF ENR, Maisons France Confort have developed a prefabricated house that reunites both energetic and economic performance at an affordable price. Marketed under the brand name Maisons Performances, the house is equipped with a steel frame, pre-assembled in the company’s workshops, and a double interior and exterior insulation system using a new material, referred to as “Casa”. “The principal of external thermal insulation is systematically used in Germany, since it offers increased insulation efficiency and considerable reduces thermal bridges,” explains Gwenaël Cernay, assistant communication manager. It is quite a novel technology for France’s construction sector. Technical testing has already been carried out in Alençon.” The very first houses were marketed in Calvados, Orne and Sarthe in 2007, construction time being reduced by half. Today, the company has extended its offer to the Upper Normandy, Franche-Comté and Centre regions, and will soon be marketing in Nord Pas-de-Calais. “The house is not LEB standard; however, the process involved contributes towards such certification,” adds Gwenaël Cernay. Its energy consumption is 30% lower than RT 2005 recommendations and its sale price is 15% under the standard market offer.”

There are now “low-energy” houses, equipped with high-performance insulation, and “passive” houses built with sufficiently insulated materials to do without radiators. And there are even “positive” houses, that produce more energy than they consume! Such eco-friendly housing is decidedly in vogue and professionals from the building industry are perfectly in the picture. Ecology is now a sustainable ingredient in the industry’s very foundations. All the more so since the Grenelle Environment Forum set regulatory commitments scheduled to come into force… in no time.
In 2010, some 7,000 residential properties are awaiting environmental certification in France, and a further 1,000 new buildings and low-energy or positive houses are due for construction by the year end. An approach that marks the end of incessant pilgrimages to Germany or Austria; France is now catching up and abandoning its “fend for yourself” policy - by which every owner, home builder, contractor or architect coped alone according to self-collected information and resources – to adopt a massive eco-friendly construction strategy. Indeed, the Grenelle Environment Forum focused on the question of housing, a sector that literally devours 42% of our energy supply and generates 25% of our CO2 emission. As early as 2013, new individual homes will require to be certified LEB (Low Energy Buildings – BBC – Bâtiments à Basse Consommation in French), the deadline for buildings in the public and tertiary sector being advanced to 2011. However, the greatest challenge lies in rehabilitation: 20 million residential properties will need to be renovated by 2050. A market that represents 200,000 potential new and direct jobs.

“In concrete terms, we need to innovate!”

The Grenelle was a genuine trigger for the building profession. Last December, the Fédération du Bâtiment du Calvados (Calvados Building Federation) launched a new interprofessional “sustainable development” section, immediately following the first edition of the Coulisses de la Construction Durable (Backstage of Sustainable Construction), held in February in the Zénith in Caen. “In the sustainable development process, we can no longer think profession by profession,” justifies Claire Schmitt, the federation’s general secretary. “A transversal and systemic approach is needed to optimise building performance.” In January, leading professional and institutional representatives joined forces in the form of a new association, ARCENE (cf. article). Aim: to pull together local impetus and to generally mobilise and organise the sector, “in order to generate a genuine in-depth transformation, in terms of market approach, business organisation and technical solutions alike,” resumes Pierre Evrard, Project Coordinator for ARCENE. “In concrete terms, we need to innovate!”
And some professionals are a step ahead. “We are expected to divide by eight our buildings’ energy consumption in less than ten years,” explains François Taudière, Managing Director of Tickner, a wood frame house building firm located in Mesnil Mauger in the Pays d’Auge. Since the 1st of January, the company has been marketing a house that offers energetic performance in line with the thermal regulations due to come into force in 2012 (see below). Technical characteristics: wood frame, insulated wood fibre and cellulose wadding panels. It is the only product currently on the market and the company hopes to sell 80 such houses in 2010. “If our clients don’t make the right choice today, their house will be obsolete tomorrow.” And to ensure that its product would be marketable in time for the Grenelle, Tickner already began developing its prototype four years ago. “We were lucky enough to believe in the product before our competitors.”

Eco-friendly housing – accessible to all

To take on this technological challenge, builders are relying on eco-materials, renewable energies and new techniques – distributed insulation, geothermal science, double flow ventilation… - all offering higher performance for reducing energy costs and the lowest possible environmental impact. Today, these innovative technologies are the subject of intensive research, particularly on a regional level (”Environment friendly materials”, Connexions n°31 / July 2008). The real challenge is now to ensure their economic viability. “We cannot expect a return on investment over 20 years for a wood boiler or a solar panel”, Thierry Halconruy, Study, research and international affairs director at the ESITC in Caen, admits with regret. The surcharge involved in implementing low energy buildings, according to RT 2012 regulations, varies from 12 to 30% depending on the design of the new house, the energy used and the surrounding climate. The ADEME (French Agency for Environment and Energy Management) estimates that, with the generalisation and the industrialisation of new techniques, this surcharge could be reduced to between 5 and 10% as early as 2012, hence promising a return over 5 to 10 years, thanks to energy cost reduction. The first truly affordable eco-friendly houses are starting to emerge (see page 13), and mass housing is following the same example.
The Alençon-based group Maisons France Confort, the nation’s 2nd ranking private house building firm, has developed an “automated” LEB, the first example of which was sold to a private purchaser late 2009 in Cavalaire-sur-Mer (Var – southern France). The house is of traditional construction, using either brick or breeze-blocks. However, the builder took care to optimise the entire ventilation, heating and domestic water supply system in order to obtain energetic performance under 40 kWh/m²/year. “At design stage, we conduct a thermal study of our client’s future house, in order to determine the best orientation, technical and energetic options,” explains Gwenaël Cernay, assistant communication manager for the group. “Once built, we then conduct surveys to measure the house’s energetic performance (airtightness test), via an independent certifying surveyor, hence offering our houses the BBC Effinergie® quality label, and their owners the possibility to obtain financial and tax benefits (0% loan, tax credit, property tax, regional support, etc.).”

A “systemic” approach

At the ESITC (Higher School of Civil Engineering) in Caen, tomorrow’s eco-builders are being trained to adopt a systemic approach. “By perceiving a building as a global system requiring to be optimised, one quickly realises that priority should be given neither to a single material nor a single technique. The ideal building is multi-material, contextualised and optimised throughout its life cycle,” believes Dr Mohamed Boutouil, in charge of the school’s materials research laboratory. Thanks to new digital simulation tools, buildings become virtual objects that we can fully grasp as a coherent whole. “Optimising a building’s environmental performance is synonymous to quantitatively and qualitatively managing the performance of each and every one of its features, from design to dismantling. We now have tools capable of qualifying (life cycle analysis) and evaluating performance, hence offering prime contractors global and substantiated solutions.”

A new profession is emerging: construction systems engineer, likely to, one day, replace the current tandem involving an architect who in turn appoints an engineering consultancy. “Similar systems engineers are already active in the mechanical or aeronautical fields,” adds Thierry Halconruy, study director. In terms of approach, it’s a genuine revolution for the construction industry.” Training, which hitherto focused essentially on mechanical engineering, now deals with subjects such as energy, thermodynamics…
The immediate consequence is that certain existing professionals are lacking in adequate technological training. The Confédération de l’Artisanat et des Petites Entreprises (CAPEB – Confederation of Small Construction Companies) is looking to train some 10,000 “eco-builders” by 2011, whereas the FFB (French Building Federation) is also developing a training offer in Energy Economics for companies and the self-employed in the building industry (FEE Bat). Bringing the entire sector up to date in terms of skill will, of course, take a few years. Next term, the ESITC in Caen will be launching a specialised masters degree in “eco-materials and sustainable development” for existing graduates who have already acquired a more general view of the profession. The building sector is already hard at work.

Thierry Halconruy
Study, research and international affairs director, ESITC Caen
Tel: 02 31 46 22 90

Dr Mohamed Boutouil
Manager of the materials research laboratory, ESITC Caen
Tel: 02 31 46 23 10

Claire Schmitt
General Secretary of the Calvados Building Federation
Tel: 02 31 27 70 80

Pierre Evrard
Project Coordinator, ARCENE
Tel: 02 31 27 70 53

Eric Vandromme
Technical Director, Maisons France Confort
Tel: 02 33 80 66 66

François Taudière
Managing Director, Tickner
Tel: 02 31 63 82 74

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