Integrated strategies for retrofitting buildings to reduce primary energy use, GHG emissions and costs

The increasing number of retrofitted buildings reaching requirements of advanced building standards is an indicator for the availability and feasibility of energy-efficient technologies. The paper assesses the economic effectiveness and viability of such retrofits and reveals the impact of factors such as scope, time horizon, interest rate as well as energy price expectations and preferences. Retrofit strategies to reach ambitious targets of primary energy reduction and CO2 mitigations at low life cycle costs are identified for different building typologies. This is done both in a generic way referring to the building stock of the countries involved in the research, Denmark, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland, and for a selection of case studies. Some recommendations for retrofit strategies are given as conclusions. The paper presents selected outcomes of the project Integrated strategies and policy instruments for retrofitting buildings to reduce primary energy use and GHG emissions (INSPIRE), in the frame of the Eracobuild programme