THPE, BBC, QEH ... labels and initials related to eco-housing and eco-homes are legion. Not always easy to find one’s way through!

Logéco offers you a short glossary of the most common initials and labels that you might encounter during your efforts.

ADEME: It stands for “Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie” (Agency for Environment and Energy Management). Under the tutelage of the Ministries of Ecology, Energy, and Research, this public agency’s mission is the implementation of public policies in the environmental field. It informs the general public, facilitates projects of environmental protection and green habitats and offers concrete graduate financial aid to people who want to bring such projects to life.

AFNOR Certification: within AFNOR, “Association française de normalization” (French Standards Association), AFNOR Certification is a French certification organism. AFNOR Certification is responsible for issuing the ecolabel NF environment, French ecolabel.

ANAH: “Agence Nationale de l’Habitat” (National Housing Agency). French public organism, ANAH is responsible for helping to improve private rented housing. It provides grants to private landowners willing to carry out works to improve security, safety, comfort, but who also want to improve insulation and energy savings.

ANIL: “Agence Nationale pour l’Information et le Logement” (National Agency for Information and Housing). It offers information and provides assistance (whether legal, financial or fiscal) to individuals on housing issues.

BBC 2005: “Bâtiment de Basse Consommation énergétique” (Building of low energy consumption). This is a standard created by a French Decree on 8 May 2007. A house certified BBC therefore limits to 50 kWh / m² its annual consumption of primary energy (figure taking into account heating, hot water, cooling, lighting and ventilation). This figure is adapted according to regions and altitude.

BEPOS: It stands for “Bâtiment à énergie positive”. A positive energy building is a building with very low energy consumption and which produces more energy than it uses. This low use may be permitted through the installation of wind or photovoltaic systems. According to the Environment Grenelle, this standard will apply to all new housings as of 2020.

CSTB: The “Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment” (Scientific and Technical Center for Buildings) is a public institution created in 1947 answering to the Ministries of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development. CSTB assists governments in sustainable development processes. CSTBat is a product certification carried out by CSTB attesting the conformity of certain products (solar sensors, water heaters) in regard to certain technical specifications.

DPE: The “diagnostic de performance energetic” (energy performance diagnosis) aims to take stock of a property’s energy consumption. Made by professionals, this assessment takes into account heating, cooling and hot water and must be showed at the sale or rental of commercial buildings (hotels, offices, etc.). The reference scale goes from A (energy saving building) to G (energy eating building).

H&E: quite similar to the HQE® procedure, the certification process H&E, introduced by CERQUAL, a subsidiary of Qualitel, aims to improve the environmental quality of building operations. The aim is to ensure that the building has been constructed and designed while taking the environment into account.

HQE®: the “demarche de Haute Qualité Environnementale” (High Environmental Quality procedure), promoted by the HQE Association, is a voluntary process that aims to improve the environmental quality of a building during its construction. This is a brand name and not a standard or a label. This procedure is based on respect of a 14 targets reference frame.

OPAH: The “operation programmée d’amélioration de l’habitat” (scheduled housing improvement operation) is an agreement between different actors (state, ANAH, local authority) which aims to encourage investors and owners to improve or rehabilitate their housing. The OPAH specifies the geographical scope (it can include an entire neighborhood, for example) and the amount of aid that is granted.

RT 2005: this thermal regulation applies to new buildings and sets their maximum energy consumption (regarding heating, ventilation, water heating, lighting and air conditioning). Labels such as HPE, THPE and BBC have been created in parallel and define lower energy consumption than that defined by the RT 2005.

Earthenware, characterized by its red color, is one of the few green materials used in "ordinary" houses building. Its insulating properties and low price make it a great ally that will be used as bricks or tiles.

One can find earth as mud brick: it is then compressed and dried and has the same qualities.