Thermal regulations

RT 2012 defines categories of buildings in which it is possible to ensure a good level of comfort in summer without having to resort to an active cooling system, air conditioning.

In 2010, the Grenelle de l'environnement set the goal of making low-energy buildings the norm with the RT 2012 standard, with positive-energy buildings to follow in January 2020.

In 2010, the building sector was France's biggest energy consumer of all economic sectors.

It consumes around 68 million tonnes of oil equivalent, or 42.5% of total end-use energy. That's more than a tonne of oil equivalent consumed by every French person every year. It generates 123 million tonnes of CO ₂ , or 23% of national emissions. These emissions have increased by around 15% since 1990. Each French person thus releases around two tonnes of CO ₂ into the atmosphere.

In 2010, the average annual heating bill was around €900 per household, with wide disparities that are tending to increase with rising energy prices: annual expenditure can vary from €250 for a "low-energy" house to over €1,800 for a poorly insulated home.

The implementation of the program to reduce the energy consumption of buildings provided for by the Grenelle Environment Round Table was intended to reduce energy expenditure sustainably and will contribute to the reduction of CO ₂ emissions.

The aim of this program in new construction was to make "low-energy buildings" the norm by 2012 (2010 for public and tertiary buildings), and "positive-energy buildings" by 2020.

While thermal regulations, introduced in 1975 and progressively reinforced, have already enabled energy consumption of new buildings to be cut by a factor of 2, the Grenelle de l'environnement (the French government's environmental initiative) called for energy consumption of new buildings to be cut by a factor of 3 by 2012: the average primary energy consumption of new buildings should therefore fall from 150 kWhEP/m ² /year in 2010 to 50 kWhEP/m ² /year in 2012.

In just 2 years, the Grenelle de l'environnement foresaw a greater energy breakthrough than had been achieved in the previous 30 years.

Until now, thermal regulations provided for performance improvements of 15-20% every 5 years. The target of 50 kWhEP/m ² /year in 2012 therefore represented a real turning point, which should enable France to move towards positive energy: by 2020,...