The global drive towards sustainable development and rising energy prices are putting increasing pressure on building developers and designers. In the future they have to produce much more energy efficient buildings. In order to meet the challenge a new type of design process is called for – the Integrated Energy Design process (IED). IED is a prerequisite of achieving high performance buildings with low energy consumption, good indoor environment and less CO2 emissions. IED calls for a different approach from the very early stages of design. It requires a high level of general skills and communication within the team. It leads to a high level of integration and synergy of systems and it involves modern simulation tools where suitable.
