The new RE 2020 house will be more ecological and more energy efficient. The new regulations mean lower energy bills. Beyond that, RE 2020 houses should be more comfortable in summer, and limit their environmental impact from the construction phase. Explanations and consequences of the RE 2020 in new houses in the South-West.
What is thermal regulation?
Often abbreviated RT, a thermic regulation is a set of standards aimed at regulating the energy consumption buildings. In detail, thermal regulations set the maximum quantities of energy that a building may be authorized to consume for heating, lighting or air conditioning. A very great leap forward had been made with the RT 2012. The bill of heating and domestic hot water production had thus been reduced to approximately €25/month for a household of 4 people in a 110m² dwelling, without concessions on winter thermal comfort or architecture.
Why switch to the RE 2020 new house in the South West?
La RE 2020 goes further than the only energetic performance. She wants to take an environmental dimension. For this, she looks at the carbon emissions throughout the life of the building. That is to say that it takes into account the construction phase in the same way as the duration of operation of the building. Individual houses will have to gradually reduce their carbon footprint by 30% between 2022 and 2031. This is an equivalent gain of 200.000 km by car for a 110m² house.
What changes for the new house in the Southwest with the RE 2020 ?
The new RE 2020 house benefits from solar gain in winter
The RE 2020 house knows how to take advantage of all the heat sources free for heating. Alongside the heat emitted by the occupants and household appliances, the house is heated by thethermal energy free from the rays of the sun.
The RE 2020 in new homes encourages building according to the principles of bioclimatism. It is usually equipped with a facade well exposed to the south. It lets in the sun's rays in winter, thanks to large windows to heat the whole house.
The new RE 2020 house is even better insulated
These free heat contributions, it is necessary to be able to preserve them in the housing. It is the role ofisolation. The best energy is indeed that which is not consumed. The houses built under the thermic regulation previous (RT 2012) were very well insulated and had good airtightness. There RE 2020 follows this logic. It further reinforces the requirements in terms of performance of theenvelope to minimize heating requirements. There insulation quality must be 30% more efficient than the RT 2012. The compact shape of the houses also offers less wasteful surfaces. So thearchitecture of these houses is simpler and limits dropouts.
Air renewal without heat loss
Another important point: the renewal of the air. In a well-insulated house, most heat loss occurs through air exchange. This must therefore be limited to the needs of the house. There mechanical ventilation ou CMV imposes itself. She is said single flow when only air extraction is mechanized. Thanks to sensors that react to humidity and CO2 rate optionally, it turns on or off as needed. There VMC dual streams, which recovers the heat from the outgoing air to heat the incoming air, should undoubtedly impose itself in new construction. Essential equipment for energy savings but also to guarantee the air quality of the accommodation.
See our article: Building a healthy house in the South West
No more gas heating in the new house RE 2020
Although her needs are kept to a minimum, the house RE 2020 however, it consumes energy for heating. The clearly stated objective of RE 2020 is the use ofEnergy most decarbonized possible. Finish the fossil fuels in the accommodations. The main consequence of RE 2020 is the disappearance of gas heating, while even today, gas-fired housing is the majority in new construction. It encourages the use of renewable energies, but especially tonuclear electricity which emits very little carbon. Pompe à chaleur, wood heating will thus become the norm in new construction.
Electric heating methods that consume too much energy, such as Joule effect radiators, will also disappear.
See our article 12 advantages of duct heating in a new house in the South-West
The RE 2020 new house stays cool in summer even in the South-West
The new house built according to the standards of the RE 2020 will have to resist episodes of heat wave which will be even more frequent and intense in the future.
Objective: the summer comfort without air conditioning. Nothing could be easier, just limit the solar gain in summer. An effective method is automated roller shutter management For example. At the same time, sun breezes, a pergola, roof overhangs, Or natural ventilation, are also solutions to guarantee summer comfort.
See our article on principles of bioclimatism.
Calculation methods have thus incorporated climate change and heat waves. From these new data, a summer comfort indicator will be calculated when designing the building, which will be expressed in degree.hours of discomfort (DH). It is thus forbidden to exceed 1250 DH, i.e. a period of 25 days during which the accommodation would be continuously at 30° during the day and 28° at night. But from 350 DH penalties apply in the calculation. This strongly encourages builders to design homes that are comfortable in hot weather.
The use of low impact materials
One of the main objectives of regulation is to reduce the carbon impact of the construction of buildings. Indeed, for high-performance buildings, the construction and demolition phases represent between 60 and 90% of the total carbon impact calculated over a lifespan of 50 years. The idea is to encourage manufacturers to make progress in construction materials, techniques and equipment. Brick production kilns heated with biomass or green electricity, low-carbon concrete using plant-based binders, relocations to Europe and France of Asian production, manufacturers are making real efforts to reduction of their environmental footprint. Objective, to reduce emissions from industrial sectors by at least 30% in 2030 compared to 2013.
The RE 20 in a new house: Heading for the wooden house?
This requirement to reduce the carbon footprint strongly encourages the use of wood and other biobased materials. The latter store carbon during their growth and therefore throughout the life of the building. Today the timber frame house seduced, particularly in the South-West. If today, it only represents around 10% of the new detached house market in France, it should become the norm by 2030.
