The objective of this work is to implement a simplified calculation procedure for building net energy need, based on a quasi-steady state model and on a monthly data set. In particular, it is intended to supply a formulation of the dynamic parameters and to adapt them to Italian climatic, typological, constructive and user data. The method was validated by determining the numerical correlations of the gain/loss utilization factor, through a comparison with a detailed building energy simulation software (EnergyPlus). The simulation was run on some test rooms defined by CEN (European Committee for Standardization) and on some real buildings that are representative of the Italian building stock, assuming weather data from different Italian locations (Torino, Roma, Palermo). The work shows that the accuracy of results is greatly affected by nonlinearities in the determination of the heat transfer and that the dynamic parameters are sensitive to some building features which are not taken into account in the CEN correlations. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.