Global warming is the gradual process of Planet Earth of increasing its temperature, among other causes, by the anthropic intensification of greenhouse gases. In this video, it is widely explained,...

The emission of polluting gases into the atmosphere is a problem derived from many activities, including the construction and rehabilitation of buildings. In this video we will learn in depth one o...

Through its entire life cycle, construction activities generate impacts that, if not taken into account, can lead to negative consequences on the environment. One of these impacts is acidification,...

El radón es la segunda causa de cáncer de pulmón en las personas. Es por ello que, a partir de la Directiva Europea 2013/59, se crea el nuevo documento básico del CTE, el DB-HS 6. En este vídeo hab...

Among the different impacts that the construction sector has associated, we find eutrophication. In this video explains what it consists in, what role constructive activities play and why it shoul...

Construction sector activities involve a series of impacts on the environment, one of which is the depletion of abiotic resources. We discover what this impact consists in and why it is important t...

Mariano Bueno spent many years working in the field of health in buildings, and will clarify why sometimes it is hard to reach a consensus on health issues. We will also see what are the biocompati...

Wooden construction provides many benefits from the environmental point of view, but it is still used little because it is a type of construction quite unknown in Spain. That is why we visit severa...

Wood is a material that is booming in the construction of buildings, mainly for environmental reasons. We have the collaboration of Gerardo Wadel to analyze the many advantages of using wood as a c...

The community of professionals and companies that are driving the Passivhaus standard in Spain has been growing year after year. In this video, we count on the collaboration of Felip Pich-Aguilera,...

We visit a primary and high school in which a successful energy saving project was carried out. What characterizes the project is that, instead of modifying the building, users were taught how to u...

To what extent can an architecture biennial influence the transformation of the city where it is celebrated? Under the title of "Imminent commons" the first biennial of architecture and urbanism of...

Mr. Ferran Tarradellas (Director of the Representation of the European Commission in Barcelona), Ms. Assumpta Farran (Director of the Catalan Institute of Energy) and Ms. Cristina Castells (Directo...

Compensating reactive energy is one of the common proposals when making an energy audit of a building. It is generally said that it is a measure focused only on saving money, but... is it really li...

The integrated solar collectors are usually the conventional thermosyphons. They are easy to install but present lower energy efficiency. In contrast, more efficient systems have more elements, but...

At the beginning of November 2016, the 8th Passivhaus Conference was held in Pamplona. This video shows 4 products that were presented in the conference.

In this episode, we visit a construction work of 44 houses in Barcelona and the Siber showroom, in Les Franqueses del Vallès, to see in detail how does a double flow ventilation system work.

In this episode, we count on the collaboration of Roger Bancells to explain, in a real installation, which are the components of a photovoltaic installation. We also see how the position and inclin...

In another episode, we saw that in residential buildings there are several options for installing mechanical ventilation. In this episode, we see some considerations to take into account when desig...

On Saturday, December 12, a historic agreement was reached at the summit for climate change held in Paris. We speak to Salvador Samitier, head of the Catalan Office of Climate Change, in order to u...

The Royal Decree 900/2015, approved on October 9, regulates the production of electricity for self-consumption. From the first draft of the decree, the tax on the sun was mentioned, implying a grea...

Mechanical ventilation systems can improve users’ comfort and health, while allowing saving energy in buildings. In this episode, we see when it is appropriate to install them, which advantages the...

In previous episodes, we have seen the environmental benefits of using wood as a construction material but, to what extent can we use proximity wood? How do we face the challenge of durability? How...

Wood is a renewable resource that can be recycled and reused. It is also a reservoir of CO2. It is general thought to be a direct association between wood and sustainability, although this is not a...

Internet has revolutionized many sectors. Some recent news suggest that the building sector may be the next one. In this episode, we see how internet can help to sustain the building sector and als...

Heating water using electricity does not have to be a huge cost of energy and money. Heat pumps for hot water are an interesting alternative to conventional electrical thermos. In this chapter we w...

One of the keys to sustainability is to turn waste into resources. In this chapter we will see what types of recycled aggregates we can obtain from construction waste and demolition or deconstructi...

In this chapter we have the participation of Maria Peralta to explain what yields we can expect from heat pumps, what operating principle they have and what types of heat pumps we can find to air c...

Monitoring the consumption of electricity in buildings in the tertiary sector is almost an obligation, because they are buildings that tend to have high energy consumption. These consumptions can o...

Every time we have more electrical appliances in our house and this can generate a certain lack of control in the consumption of electricity. The monitoring of electrical consumption allows us to k...

The information is a vital tool to start an energy saving process. In the first place because having accurate information about the operation of the building allows us to optimize its management. B...

On the glass part of a window you are required to let the maximum visible light pass, but at the same time we want it to have a very low heat transmission. In this chapter we will see five aspects ...

The Basic Document HE of the Technical Building Code aims to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. Recently an update of the document has been published and in this chapter we have the collab...

If we want to correctly understand the Technical Building Code and the energy certification of buildings, it is necessary to have some of the concepts that we have in this chapter. For example, you...

Elevators without chamber of machines, without the traditional gears, with flat tapes instead of traditional cables, with accumulators of electricity ... There are many differences between a tradit...

Good insulation improves the thermal behavior of the roof and often also increases the durability. In this chapter we list criteria for the correct placement of insulation in the roofs. The archite...

In this chapter we comment on the procedure for the completion of the energy certification of existing buildings and we also explain what the Energy Test is.

In this chapter we explain the operation of different types of boilers, in order to justify the difference in performance that we can expect from each one of them. We also talk about the types of f...

A blower-door is a fan that can increase or reduce the interior pressure of a home or any other type of building. It is used to assess the watertightness of air infiltrations. In this video we will...

The tightness is a key element for low consumption in air conditioning. There are cases, as we will see below, in which the increase in the insulation of the building envelope does not reduce the d...

The best known energy saving strategy is to change the lamps for more efficient models. Where we have an incandescent bulb, the change to a compact fluorescent is simple, and on certain occasions L...

Saving energy in lighting can be to reduce the amount of installed lamps, replace obsolete lamps with more efficient ones, or improve lighting management, among other options. The question is: wher...

Leveraging the sunlight allows us to save energy and provide light comfort to the users of the buildings. Unfortunately, if it does not work well, glare and overheating can be created that annul th...

Thermography can be very useful when it comes to inspecting a building, since it allows us to quickly visualize all surface temperatures of the objects that appear in the image. It is a resource of...

In the previous chapter we saw how to isolate the facades of the buildings from a rather theoretical point of view. Now we have the opportunity to comment with Josep Linares, of the Housing Agency ...

There are many reasons to justify the improvement in the insulation of buildings. Even so, it is often followed as an expensive and difficult to repay compared to the improvement of active air cond...

When choosing a material to isolate a building, it is important to know its ability to isolate it, but it is also important to know what its manufacturing involves. Different isolations have differ...

The windows that we select for the construction or rehabilitation of a building will greatly condition the energy demand of the building. Therefore, when assessing its price, we must also consider ...

The window is the most vulnerable element of the facades of the buildings and therefore an element in which we can provide a great improvement in the energy efficiency of the existing buildings. In...

It is usual to differentiate the paintings between "normal" and "ecological", but the reality is that this differentiation is too simplistic and causes some confusion. There are several types of pa...

In this chapter we analyze some products that facilitate the saving of water in the buildings, such as the toilets that use the washroom water to fill the cistern or the urinals that work without w...

In this chapter we explain what criteria to follow when choosing the materials and colors of the awnings, to ensure that they perform well with their function of cooling the environment.

Some of the direct advantages of industrialization at the environmental level are the reduction of waste generated in work, noise pollution and also the generation of dust. In this chapter we analy...

It is a type of eco-label that incorporates information about the life cycle analysis of the product. If this system extends and there are enough products on the market that offer this information,...

Ecological labels, or eco-labels, are voluntary environmental qualification systems that certify that a particular product is more environmentally friendly than most of its category.

The flexibility of use that a building allows will condition the amount of remodeling that will have to suffer throughout its useful life. If a building, such as Georges Pompidou, allows to make ch...

If in the design phase the kitchen is thought from the environmental perspective, we will reduce the impact of user actions. In this video we show some basic tips that will allow us to make more su...

Bamboo is a material that is usually labeled as sustainable. Certainly, it has a virtue that differentiates it from other materials: its great regenerability. When it is cut the bamboo grows again ...

The Passivhaus is a low energy standard widely implemented in central and northern Europe. It is based on combining passive design with advanced technologies, such as forced ventilation with heat r...

If we want to improve the energy performance of a building it is always advisable to do a good preliminary study. If we consider standard solutions for all buildings, we can hardly say that we are ...

In order to build and operate buildings, a constant flow of resources is needed, such as wood, steel, energy or water. These resources, whether in seconds or decades, end up becoming waste. This pr...

Intermittent spaces are spaces that do not form part of the interior of the buildings, but also from the outside, such as the porches or courtyards. These spaces tend to have a more or less direct ...

The Park Güell of Barcelona was designed with the aim of making the most of the rainwater in order to convert what was called the "Pelada Mountain" in a zone full of vegetation. On the other hand, ...

On this occasion we will analyze water retention systems that were developed many centuries ago, in semi-desert areas. Using these systems, in theory, would reduce the need for large infrastructure...

There are several aspects that condition the energy consumption of a building: the form and orientation, the materials, the facilities, the climate, the environment, the users and the management. W...

In this chapter we talk about the paradox of Jevons, which shows that the increase in efficiency does not always mean a reduction in the overall consumption of resources. Although efficiency is a p...

In this episode, we see how the Eskimos managed to adapt to the Arctic climate using the few available resources they had. The main characteristic that the Eskimo buildings had to achieve was the p...