This report deals with Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), thermal comfort and daylight requirements in Belgium (Brussels Region), Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK (England and Wales) and focuses on the respective building codes for new and existing residential buildings. More specifically, the publication aims at providing an overview of the regulatory framework for IAQ, thermal comfort and daylight, underlines the significance of having appropriate requirements for thermal comfort, ventilation and daylight conditions and concludes with recommendations for further policy development in respect to indoor climate.

The report specifically addresses building airtightness and gives an overview of the variety of approaches in the different Member States (MS). Main findings are summarised below:

• airtightness requirements differ largely over Europe: 6 MS already have precise values in place; Germany generally requires a state-of-the-art level of airtightness and Italy follows a regional approach;
• indicators for airtightness vary throughout Europe (e.g. volume per hour, litres per second per m²) as well as for testing conditions (pressure: 50 to 100 Pa);
• airtightness tests are required in France and Denmark (random check of min. 5%, all from 2015). For other countries, voluntary airtightness tests are common when applying for financial subsidies, high classes in energy performance certificates (EPC), etc.

 Download the full report here.