Abstract
Globally, only 2% of existing building stock is built yearly; the remaining 98% already exist. Energy consumption and indoor thermal comfort of the existing building stock are not encouraging. This is due to many challenges associated with existing buildings; the challenges range from cracks, leakages, poor insulation, heat losses and high rate of unsustainable technologies. This paper investigates possible barriers facing the adoption and application of sustainable technologies (STs) for sustainable or energy-efficient upgrade of existing buildings. New STs are manufactured on a regular basis to meet improved energy efficiency standards, yet there are minimal actions/attempts to adopt and apply improved technologies in existing buildings for energy efficiency. Indeed, there are limited studies focused on the use of qualitative approaches to identify barriers to adoption and use of STs. Thus, a semi-structured interview approach was adopted and applied using sustainability/energy efficiency professionals, building services engineers, project managers, architects, and facility managers in Australia. The results indicate that barriers to the adoption and application of sustainable technologies are perceived benefits in demolish-and-build, age of building, cost of STs, perceived poor payback time, unreliable energy-savings projections, existing design, hidden and overall cost of renovation, and cost of STs.
Highlights
Existing buildings are increasing every year; they are faced with many defects because of exposure to severe weather conditions and usage
There is the perception that these technologies are not able to meet specified energy-saving targets [38]
Sustainable technologies are to a large extent installed in existing buildings through renovations to improve energy savings
Summary
Existing buildings are increasing every year; they are faced with many defects because of exposure to severe weather conditions and usage These defects include cracks, dead holes, and high level of infiltration, which affect energy consumption. The application of sustainable technologies to improve energy savings of existing buildings can lead to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These technologies lead to the creation of environmentally sound and resource-efficient environments, high performance of buildings and a reduction in GHG emissions [2,3]. STs have been adopted and installed through renovation to improve the energy consumption of existing buildings [5,6].
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