The diversity in terms of typology within the non-residential sector is vast. Compared to the residential sector, this sector is more complex and heterogeneous. It includes types such as offices, shops, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, schools, universities and sports centres while in some cases multiple functions exist in the same building. Moreover, differences from country to country are more pronounced, which in turn, makes the cross-country comparison of the definitions of various building categories more challenging.
In our survey, we have considered the following broad categories: educational buildings, offices, hospitals, hotels and restaurants, sports facilities, wholesale and retail trade services buildings and other types of energy- consuming buildings. In each of these categories, a broad division between various subcategories has been considered based on the list of Figure 1A8.
Figure 1A8 reveals the split between these categories at the European level. The retail and wholesale buildings comprise the largest portion of the non-residential stock. These buildings are somewhat different from others as heating and cooling conditions may differ substantially from other categories due to large areas of wholesale buildings often being used only for storage purposes.
In addition to this, differences are also pronounced within this sector where there is no homogeneity in terms of size, usage pattern (use hours) and construction style. This requires special attention when looking at the retail and wholesale sub-sectors.
Office buildings are the second biggest category with a floor space corresponding to ¼ of the total non- residential floor space. Offices have similar heating and cooling conditions to residential buildings although they are of shorter use. Similar usage pattern as offices are found with educational buildings which count for less than 20% of the entire non-residential floor space.
Hospitals (7% of total non-residential floor space) have continuous usage patterns, where energy demand can vary substantially depending on the services provided (from consultation rooms to surgery rooms).
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0% LT LVSF NLMF SI FR LVMF PL UK SEMF RO BG SESF BE
Figure 1A8 - The non-residential sector in Europe
Source: BPIE survey
Wholesale & retail 28%
Detached shops, shopping centres, department stores, large and small retail, food and non food shops, bakeries, car sales and maintenance, hair dresser, laundry, service stations (in gas stations), fair and congress buildings and other wholesale and retail.
Offices 23%
Offices in private companies and offices in all state, municipal and other administrative buildings, post- offices.
Educational 17%
Primary and secondary schools, high schools and universities, research laboratories, professional training activities and others.
Hotels &
restaurants 11%
Hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafés, canteens or cafeterias in businesses, catering and others.
Hospitals
7%
Public and private hospitals, medical care, homes for handicapped, day nursery and others.Sport facilities
4%
Sport halls, swimming pools, gyms etc.Other 11%
Warehousing, transportation and garage buildings, agricultural (farms, greenhouses) buildings, garden buildings.
The division between the non-residential building categories varies significantly from country to country as seen in Figure 1A9. Offices and wholesale & retail trade buildings make up the largest component in most countries. Many countries have reported a large component in the category of ‘other’ buildings and this probably indicates that further effort is required in the future to separate this floor area into one or more of the other categories wherever possible.
Figure 1A9 - Breakdown of non-residential floor space in selected countries
Source: BPIE survey
Other types Wholesale & retail Sport facilities Hotels & restaurants Hospitals
Educational Offices
DE FR GB IT PL ES NL CH SE DK FI HU RO NO CZ BG SK LT SI LV EE 1.40
1.50
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
Billion m2
While the dataset of residential buildings is fairly comprehensive, the non-residential stock is far less covered, as the sector is associated with higher uncertainty levels due to the difficulties in tracking the existing stock of all different non-residential types and developing an appropriate statistical database.
Public buildings are in the limelight at the moment due to the policies requiring the public sector to lead by example where all new constructions in the sector are required to be of nearly zero energy standards by end of 20189 while a sectoral renovation rate of at least 3% is recommended10.
The exercise carried out by BPIE has reinforced the need for collecting better data and urge a call for the establishment of guidelines and requirements under which Member States should gather more extensive and consistent data on the typology of their non-residential stock.
B. CHARACTERISTICS
In addition to typology, buildings vary greatly in terms of age, size and location. The data collected through our survey has allowed us to draw up a picture of these characteristics. These are discussed in more detail below.
AGE
Buildings across Europe are associated with different time periods dating even before the 1900s. Historical buildings certainly have a significant heritage value while construction techniques and building regulations such as building codes imposed at the design phase have a great influence on the energy performance of a building built in a specific period.
In the residential sector, the age of a building is likely to be strongly linked to the level of energy use for the majority of buildings that have not undergone renovation to improve energy performance.
The BPIE survey has classified buildings in different age bands (specific chronological periods) for each country.
In order to allow some comparison between the age profiles of the residential building stock of different countries, the floor area data for each country has been consolidated into three representative age bands11:
Old: typically representing buildings up to 1960
Modern: typically representing buildings from 1961 to 1990 Recent: typically representing buildings from 1991 to 2010
Figure 1B1 shows the share of residential floor space by age band. The specific energy use within these age bands is likely to differ between countries in different regions of Europe due to a number of political, economic and social factors. The average composition for each region has been estimated by summing the floor area by age band for all countries in the respective region where detailed data have been made available. The variations in the age profile between the three regions appear to be small where older buildings (before 1960) have the biggest share in the North & West region. In particular, the countries with the largest components of older buildings are the UK, Denmark, Sweden, France, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. It is also evident that all countries experienced a large boom in construction in the ‘modern’ period (1961-1990) and with a few exceptions, the housing stock more than doubled in this period.
Significant country-by-country variations are also evident. The countries with the most recently constructed buildings (1990-2010) appear to be Ireland, Spain, Poland and Finland, while countries with the highest rate of construction in the ‘modern’ period (1961-1990) seem to be Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Finland.
9 Source: The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (2010, May 19). Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on the energy performance of buildings (recast). Official Journal of the European Union.
10 Source: European Comission (2011). Energy Efficiency Plan 2011, COM(2011) 109 final.
11 A more detailed age breakdown was available in individual countries. When sorted at the regional level, it was possible to deduce the breakdown in the three age groups identified herein.
Pre 1960 1961-1990 1991-2010
North & West
Central & East 42%
19%
39%
17%
35%
48%
Average per region
NOTES
BG: Based on estimations EE: Data from 1951 onwards.
GR: Data only till 2000.
IT: Values exclude heritage buildings before the 1950.
LT: Data from 1941 onwards.
MT: Based on a sample survey with data until 2002.
PL: Based on estimations
ES: Based on primary residences (i.e. excluding secondary houses) SE: Data only from 1921 till 2005
Figure 1B1 - Age profile of residential floor space
Source: BPIE survey
FI IE AT NL DE FR SE DK UK
EE
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
LT LV HU RO SK SI PL BG CZ
North & WestCentral & East
GR MT ES IT
South
37%
14%
49%
South
number < 200 m2 200 - 1 000 m2 > 1 000 m2
EE 10 50 40
SI 89.8 8.8 1.4
LT 42 55 3
CY 79 21
AT 11 52 37
All types of consuming non-residential buildings