European residential buildings and empirical assessment of the Hellenic building stock, energy consumption, emissions and potential energy savings

Abstract

The existing building stock in European countries accounts for over 40% of final energy consumption in the European Union (EU) member states, of which residential use represents 63% of total energy consumption in the buildings sector. Consequently, an increase of building energy performance can constitute an important instrument in the efforts to alleviate the EU energy import dependency (currently at about 48%) and comply with the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This is also in accordance to the European Directive (EPBD 2002/91/EC) on the energy performance of buildings, which is currently under consideration in all EU member states. This paper presents an overview of the EU residential building stock and focuses on the Hellenic buildings. It elaborates the methodology used to determine the priorities for energy conservation measures (ECMs) in Hellenic residential buildings to reduce the environmental impact from CO 2 emissions, through the implementation of a realistic and effective national action plan. A major obstacle that had to overcome was the need to make suitable assumptions for missing detailed primary data. Accordingly, a qualitative and quantitative assessment of scattered national data resulted to a realistic assessment of the existing residential building stock and energy consumption. This is the first time that this kind of aggregate data is presented on a national level. Different energy conservation scenarios and their impact on the reduction of CO 2 emissions were evaluated. Accordingly, the most effective ECMs are the insulation of external walls (33–60% energy savings), weather proofing of openings (16–21%), the installation of double-glazed windows (14–20%), the regular maintenance of central heating boilers (10–12%), and the installation of solar collectors for sanitary hot water production (50–80%).