•The EPCs are rarely perceived as useful for the end-user.•The Building Renovation Passport (BRP) is intended as a document for triggering deep renovations.•Detailed renovation advice is needed to ...support the decision making process.•An extensive overview of the existing/developing BRP initiative across Europe is presented.
Lack of information and transparency increases risk and undermines investor confidence. Therefore, a systematized and optimized capture and processing of information also supports investment decision making and creates opportunities for innovation and uptake of energy efficiency and sustainability measures, processes and designs. Building passports could play a valuable role in boosting the availability of information to a wide range of market participants. Better information flows are a necessary part of improving the quality assurance system for buildings and the construction industry market overall.
The aim of the paper is firstly to set a Building Renovation Passport (BRP) definition, to explore the potential role of a voluntary scheme across EU as a key tool to help overcome this information imbalance by providing all market stakeholders, including financing institutions, providers of mortgage credit, investors and insurers with access to key building related documentation and information to properly assess the many factors impacting the overall quality of buildings. Within the presented study three initiatives currently developed across EU (Flanders, France and Germany), have been selected to be investigated in details providing an extensive overview of the process supporting the creation of a Building Renovation Passport and covering the main issues necessary for its development and implementation.
This study analysed renovation measures implemented with ARA renovation subsidy in Finland in multifamily apartment buildings. Measured energy data was used to calibrate the energy simulation model ...of the most typical renovated building from the 1970 s. For the reference building, a comprehensive set of renovation packages were applied to assess the performance of ARA grants. It was noticed that official energy performance certificates (EPC) overestimated before the renovation energy use as well as energy saving by a factor of almost 2. It was notable that in calculated EPCs, after renovation, EP-value was higher than before renovation, EP-value based on measured energy use. The main reasons for faulty energy calculations were strong overestimations in the building leakage rate and ventilation airflow rate. Renovation packages reduced EP-value by 8 % to 27 %, including lighting and appliances. Those using district heat resulted in a small increase in electricity with a flat duration curve, but the combined ground source and exhaust air heat pump showed the highest peak electricity power increase by factor 6. Exhaust air heat pump, window replacement and photovoltaic were the most cost-effective options, while packages with additional insulation faced considerably higher costs than the sum of ARA support and monthly savings could cover bank loans; thus, ARA support was clearly too small to support deep renovation. The need to improve the accuracy of EPCs in assessing energy performance to facilitate more effective financial support was a finding that can be important for any support scheme to secure the necessary funding for renovation.
•A pre and post renovation energy use analysis of almost 90,000 renovated dwellings.•The (p)rebound effects explain only partly disappointing energy renovation results.•Effectiveness of renovations ...are dependent on state of building prior to renovation.•Effectiveness of renovations are dependent on type of occupant.•Deep renovations often save less energy than expected but are the most effective.
Energy renovations often result in lower energy savings than expected. Therefore, in this study we investigate nearly 90,000 renovated dwellings in the Netherlands with pre and post renovation data of actual and calculated energy consumption. One of the main additions of this paper, compared to previous studies on thermal renovation, is that it only takes dwellings into account with the same occupants before and after renovation, using a large longitudinal dataset. Overall this paper shows new insights towards the influence of the energy efficiency state of a building prior to energy renovation, the type of building, the number of occupants, the income level of the occupants and the occupancy time on the actual energy savings, the energy saving gap and on the probability of lower energy savings than expected. We also investigate if the influence is different per type of thermal renovation measure. Some of the findings are: it is impossible to conclude which single thermal renovation measure is the most effective because this is dependent on the energy efficiency of the building prior to the energy renovation, type of building, income level and occupancy; occupants with a high income save more energy than occupants with low income; dwellings with employed occupants benefit more from improved building installations than dwellings occupied by unemployed occupants; The prebound and rebound effects are only part of the explanations for lower than expected energy savings; Deep renovations result more often in lower than expected energy savings than single renovation measures but nevertheless they result in the highest average energy saving compared to other thermal renovation measures. The results could be used for more realistic expectations of the energy reduction achieved by thermal renovations, which is important for (amongst others) policy makers, clients and contractors who make use of energy performance contracting, home owners, landlords and (social) housing associations and as a starting point to improve the energy calculation method.
•A systematic literature-approach to classify retrofitting is proposed.•An overview of Spain’s previous guidelines on residential retrofits is presented.•A review of financial and subsidies ...mechanisms in Spain to renovate buildings is introduced.•A literature-based matrix on retrofitting actions is presented.•A classification of energy efficiency strategies for retrofitting is proposed.
The building sector is responsible for more than 40% of final energy consumption in Europe; consequently, retrofitting existing buildings can significantly contribute to mitigate greenhouse emissions. Nevertheless, although the European Union has introduced relevant policy instruments, up to now the annual retrofit rates are considerably low with an average of 0.2% at European level. Understanding the past would support the success of the new strategies, such as the recent ones launched through the New Green Deal, which reinforces the importance of renovating existing buildings stock, as the main aim of the renovation wave.
As a starting point for assessing the main challenges to allocate the Recovery funds, this paper provides a review of Spain’s relevant literature to clearly define the characterization of the existing building stock, which actions have been typically considered under the scope of retrofits, and which strategies have been implemented until now, considering both, private and public initiatives and public financial schemes. The present work has a strong focus on energy-related strategies, although other interrelated actions are mentioned, such as accessibility measures and interior refurbishment of dwellings. Differences and similarities within these approaches are presented through the analysis of 27 relevant references of retrofitting actions and 52 references of financial mechanisms.
As in Spain 93% of multifamily buildings were constructed prior to the national transposition of the first Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD), and therefore are in need of deep energy renovations, the retrofitting of multifamily buildings topic has been widely addressed, even though often in a disjointed manner. The study suggests that although historically there have been several recommended strategies, few are conceived as integral actions, only 15% of the intervention packages refer passive and active energy-related measures and renewable energy incorporation. Furthermore, considering the antiquity of the building stock and the advantage of addressing the topic through clusters, only 63% of the resources directly refer these actions to specific clusters among the six distinctive periods, although in most cases focusing their recommendations on buildings constructed before 1980 where the worst energy performance buildings are concentrated.
Concerning public financial and funding instruments, the research illustrates that there has been a substantial increment of programs over the last years promoting energy-related measures, renewable energy and other complementary aspects such as accessibility and interior renovations, mainly for older clusters. Nevertheless, the funds constitute only 8% of the necessary declared investments, which along with the dispersion between the different procedures and the complexity of the processes, have significantly reduced the global impact of these actions without generating robust and oriented market dynamics.
Despite the several resources found, both financial instruments and guidelines tend to describe in more detail strategies related to heating demand and consumption and not delve into other relevant actions for warmer climates, fact associated both to the dynamics coming from other countries, and to a vision of the past in which people do not consume refrigeration. This clear focus on heating loads rather than cooling could present limitations for warmer regions in the near climate-change future.
There is an untapped potential for reducing GHG emissions by district renovation. It needs a detailed Energy Master Planning (EMP) of the district and support for the decision-making processes. If ...applied in a comprehensive manner it can contribute significantly to reducing energy consumption and thus to a long-term sustainable development of districts and climate neutrality in our cities.The EMP typically includes combinations of energy supply and consumption, but it is equally important to understand the different solutions for district renovation. The multi-owner structure in many districts requires another set of solution finding that is embedded in potential analysis, stakeholder analysis, participative planning, and multi-actor-Management. A district near Winterthur, Switzerland was used as a case study. Site visits and structured interviews with key stakeholders were used to collect data which was then used to model the technical-economic situation and to determine the possibilities for the future.
This open access book delves into the topic of monitoring the effectiveness of building renovation policies within the European Union (EU) using indicators. Given the substantial environmental impact ...of existing buildings on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, decarbonizing them is imperative for achieving climate neutrality in Europe. The use of indicators for monitoring decarbonization progress and evaluating policies emerges as a valuable tool, ensuring the efficiency, effectiveness, and alignment of building renovation policies with broader sustainability and climate objectives. Additionally, this approach facilitates evidence-based decision-making, promotes accountability by Member States (MSs), supports the realization of long-term goals, and actively involves the public in these vital initiatives. The European Commission is actively engaged in this realm, releasing a framework of optional indicators in 2019 and subsequently refining it during the review of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The evolving framework seeks to encompass both mandatory and optional indicators, posing greater challenges for EU MSs in monitoring the impact of their national building renovation policies and the progress of decarbonizing their building stocks. This book offers insights into these developing indicator frameworks, assesses the availability and quality of data in the case of Spain, and suggests areas of improvement and innovative approaches using emerging technologies to enhance data. The target audience includes diverse stakeholders such as central government administrations, regional and municipal authorities, data-collecting institutions, urban planners, researchers, and citizens interested in comprehending the impact of building renovation. By addressing this broad audience, the book aims to foster a more inclusive and well-informed discussion on building renovation and the decarbonization of the European building stock.
•Long-term field data for 11 existing multifamily buildings are presented.•Analysis of calculated and actual energy savings resulting from renovation of buildings.•The actual payback time was in the ...range between 3.1 and 104.8 heating seasons.
Thermal renovation of existing buildings is one of the most popular actions to decrease the energy consumption for heating and cooling. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no long-term field studies that present the influence of hydraulic rebalancing of the heating system after the thermal renovation of the building’s envelope on the level of achieving the calculated energy savings.
This work presents the results from a field study that collected data on actual operational energy over several heating seasons, from 11 similar multifamily buildings in Poland. All buildings were thermally renovated by insulating their envelope, while for some of them the works were completed by a hydraulic rebalance of their heating system. The modernization activities were implemented with a different sequence. For another group of buildings, the hydraulic balancing of the heating system was not performed after the envelope thermal renovation. This offered an excellent opportunity to compare the actual energy performance of the renovated buildings and quantify the achieved energy savings resulting from different practices. Energy audits were performed in all buildings in order to calculate the energy use of the buildings before and after the renovations. These estimates were then compared with the actual energy savings from the monitored energy use for all renovated buildings. Accordingly, the actual energy savings range between 8.8% and 74.8% of calculated energy savings, depending on the different renovations. The actual payback time for the analysed modernization actions was longer than the calculated one, ranging between 3.1 and 104.8 heating seasons.
The importance of renovations is widely recognized, for example, due to renovation backlogs in the developed countries. The urbanization megatrend, among many other factors, is still increasing the ...need for renovations in the long run. One approach to review the renovation issue is the profitability of the companies that will tackle the increasing demand in the sector. By applying mainly quantitative methods, using the 15-year timeframe (2005-2019) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and return on assets (ROA) as measures, this study reviewed the profitability of the building renovation (BR) companies from two perspectives: how does focusing on certain special services (specialized BR) fare compared to focusing on a wide range of services (wide BR) and what are the profitability differences among specialized BR companies? The results show that, when reviewing the research timeframe in total, there are no differences in profitability between wide BR and specialized BR companies. However, an annual review reveals that specialized BR companies are profitability-wise more vulnerable to economic cycles. Among the specialized BR companies, there are several differences in profitability; classically, specialization in a niche market with a deliberate customer base and low competition level is gainful. The research provides new information about an unresearched area encouraging companies to re-think their strategic choices considering service specialization and performance.
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