A systematic literature review on positive energy buildings

Abstract

Energy consumption of buildings is one of the most significant issues of the global warming. Buildings should be sustainable, healthy, comfortable, grid-friendly, and economical to construct and maintain. Positive Energy Building (PEB) concept has been discussed over the last years. A PEB refers to a building with a zero or negative net energy consumption over a typical year. This concept combines both energy saving and energy recovery from local renewable resources. However, neither in the related literature nor in international standards, harmonized definitions and calculation methods do exist. In the last decade, PEBs have been becoming a high priority for researchers and have been recently discussed by energy policy experts. In this regard, understanding and realizing the PEB concept can be considered as a significant issue. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the scientific literature to provide an overview of the PEB concept. Toward this aim, past studies were categorized according to subject, location, and energy approach. According to results, energy production or building insulation methods of PEBs show similarities in different climate conditions or level of income. This research may have a potential to draw attention of researchers and practitioners on PEBs.