The potential of carbon dioxide emissions mitigation in the building sector can be achieved through energy policies, progressive goals, and support systems to attain sustainable constructions that guarantee the reduction of emissions. Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) is a concept that allows moving forward to neutralize buildings’ carbon emissions. This has been demonstrated by more industrial countries which have set goals and challenges to progressively approach an energy neutrality balance for buildings. Therefore, the target of this research is to define a framework for a new standard to reach NZEB in Chile. Firstly, an exhaustive review of the energy policies, NZEB definitions, and components of an NZEB system took place. Secondly, focus group discussions with local and international professionals from the building sector were organized to define a vision, opportunities, and potential measures with a focus on policies, to implement and develop local technologies for NZEB buildings in Chile. The study identifies the need to advance public policies to achieve an integrated policy for the implementation of energy neutral concept buildings. Finally, the paper presents a NZEB standard framework, including key performance indicators and suggested performance metrics thresholds.

Considering the importance of daylight in the performance and well-being of the students, an investigation has been carried out in daylit classrooms. The objective was applying a methodology that integrates the daylight variations to know the annual lighting performance in typologies that resulted from passive design strategies in order to compare their performance. The context of the study was three zones of Chile: north, center and south. The study was done through a climate-based daylight modelling method using Radiance software. The interior illuminance was evaluated in relation to a target illuminance value (goal-oriented assessment), for which five intervals are defined: low, too low, in range, high and too high. The aim of the goal-oriented approach is to set a target range of values and assess the percentage of time over the year where each range is reached and the percentage of spaces in a temporal map within in range during the year. To see a compliance or non-compliance indicator, a category is proposed that considers the average annual illuminance “in range” over the year identifying which one is the most efficient. Finally, it is concluded that the information obtained is based on target ranges, which allows guiding the design decisions, effectively recognizing the annual performance.

High dynamic range (HDR) imaging techniques are nowadays widely used in building research to capture luminances in the occupant field of view and investigate visual discomfort. This photographic technique also makes it possible to map sky luminances. Such images can be used for illuminating virtual scenes; the technique is called image-based lighting (IBL). This paper presents a work investigating IBL in a lighting quality research context for accelerating the development of appearance-driven performance indicators. Simulations were carried out using Radiance software. The ability of IBL to accurately predict indoor luminances is discussed by comparison with luminances from HDR photographs and luminances predicted by simulation in modeling the sky in several other more traditional ways. The present study confirms previous observations that IBL leads to similar luminance values than far less laborious simulations in which the sky is modeled based on outdoor illuminance measurements. IBL and these last methods minimize differences with HDR photographs in comparison to sky modeling not based on outdoor measurements.

Between the ages of 6 and 18, children spend between 30 and 42 h a week at school, mostly indoors, where indoor environmental quality is usually deficient and does not favor learning. The difficulty of delivering indoor air quality (IAQ) in learning facilities is related to high occupancy rates and low interaction levels with windows. In non-industrialized countries, as in the cases presented, most classrooms have no mechanical ventilation, due to energy poverty and lack of normative requirements. This fact heavily impacts the indoor air quality and students’ learning outcomes. The aim of the paper is to identify the factors that determine acceptable CO₂ concentrations. Therefore, it studies air quality in free-running and naturally ventilated primary schools in Chile, aiming to identify the impact of contextual, occupant, and building design factors, using CO₂ concentration as a proxy for IAQ. The monitoring of CO₂, temperature, and humidity revealed that indoor air CO₂ concentration is above 1400 ppm most of the time, with peaks of 5000 ppm during the day, especially in winter. The statistical analysis indicates that CO₂ is dependent on climate, seasonality, and indoor temperature, while it is independent of outside temperature in heated classrooms. The odds of having acceptable concentrations of CO₂ are bigger when indoor temperatures are high, and there is a need to ventilate for cooling.