Energy for heating and cooling, prior than illumination and other electricity needs, represents the most important consumption in residential buildings at Zaragoza (Spain), on the 41,39° Northern latitude. The climate is Mediterranean with strong continental influences such as extreme temperatures during the summer and during the winter. Although it is possible to find abundant information of the techniques utilised in bioclimatic architecture, most of them lack an important element that all planners should keep in mind in their designs: the numeric evaluation of the energy saving achieved by means of the application of these efficiency measures. Providing of, at least, a first approach to this numeric value, would allow the planner to know ahead of time the profitability of a particular technique, which could be used as aid in for example an urban planning process, and to achieve an optimised design with a redeemable over-cost. This paper shows the results obtained by simulation of a 4-storey building with rectangular ground plan and different orientations, regarding energy saving achieved by means of the application of the next basic efficiency-techniques: (1) Insulation (2) Glazing, orientation and street layout (3) Natural ventilation (4) Solar protection (overhangs, side fins and other solar shading devices) (5) Urban development considerations about vegetation and water, materials and colours of exterior surfaces, asphalt, etc. A summary of these results, that have being obtained and compared for Zaragoza (Spain), Bologna (Italy) and Leicester (U.K.) is shown below.
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