Historical development

Before industrialisation and the development of technical equipment, living comforts depended upon natural phenomena. For example, the hypocaust structures invented by the Romans, living above animal stables to make use of their heat, drawing air through buildings with simple openings to remove heat and cool the interior.

Technical building services have made us more and more independent of climatic conditions and once uninhabitable places have become habitable through air-conditioning and heating. It was not until the end of the 20th century, when the damage to the environment caused by CO₂ (carbon dioxide) and other greenhouses gases became clear, that an ecological motivation to optimise the use of energy in buildings materialised. Since then technology has made incredible advances and many different energy saving orders have been introduced to limit the consumption of fossil fuels.

The chart below illustrates the increase of energy consumption over the last 45 years.

Increase of energy consumption (1965-2007)

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