Building Ownership, Renovation Investments, and Energy Performance—A Study of Multi-Family Dwellings in Gothenburg

Mikael Mangold,Tim Johansson,Holger Wallbaum,Magnus Österbring,Conny Overland

doi:10.3390/su10051684

Abstract

The European building stock was renewed at a rapid pace during the period 1950–1975. In many European countries, the building stock from this time needs to be renovated, and there are opportunities to introduce energy efficiency measures in the renovation process. Information availability and increasingly available analysis tools make it possible to assess the impact of policy and regulation. This article describes methods developed for analyzing investments in renovation and energy performance based on building ownership and inhabitant socio-economic information developed for Swedish authorities, to be used for the Swedish national renovations strategy in 2019. This was done by analyzing measured energy usage and renovation investments made during the last 30 years, coupled with building specific official information of buildings and resident area characteristics, for multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg (N = 6319). The statistical analyses show that more costly renovations lead to decreasing energy usage for heating, but buildings that have been renovated during the last decades have a higher energy usage when accounting for current heating system, ownership, and resident socio-economic background. It is appropriate to include an affordability aspect in larger renovation projects since economically disadvantaged groups are over-represented in buildings with poorer energy performance.

Highlights

In 2010, buildings accounted for 32% of total global final energy usage [1]
More costly renovations have resulted in lower energy usage, but buildings that have been renovated during the last decades have a higher energy usage when accounting for current heating system, ownership, and resident socio-economic background
In this article we demonstrate that variance in building energy performance can be further described when adding building ownership and area socio-economic information

Summary

Introduction

In 2010, buildings accounted for 32% of total global final energy usage [1]. The European Directive 2012/27/EU [2] requires member states to have a strategy for renovation of the building stock with the target of reducing energy usage by 20% by 2020 compared with 1990. In many European countries, the building stock increased at a rapid pace during the period 1950–1975 [3] This aging building stock needs to be renovated, and there is a possibility to introduce energy efficiency measures in the renovation process [4,5]. The authors have developed methods for analyzing investments in renovation and building energy performance based on comprehensive building-specific information that can be used to analyze subgroups of building owners and specific socio-economic inhabitant groups. This was done for the Swedish case and to be used by the Swedish authorities. The paper tries to answer the question how can merged official comprehensive building specific information be used to describe the developments in the multi-family dwelling stock?

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion