Abstract
Building retrofit is often reported to fail in achieving predicted energy savings; this mismatch in post-retrofit conditions is labeled the ‘energy performance gap’ and may be due to both occupant behavior and technical issues. In this study, the occupant is investigated through a case study of a recently retrofitted public housing in Milan inhabited by 500+ tenants. Informed by social practice theory and interviews to households, concurrent and interdependent elements in heating space are identified—including factors of comfort, competences involved and other interconnected practices. Patterns of continuity and change in setting thermal conditions in this retrofitted building emerge. In this respect, key dynamics of the occupants are related to rooted habits in managing heating, social norms of thermal comfort, mastered skills in dealing with technical devices and infrastructure and ways of organizing other routines such as laundry and forms of entertainment when services are limitedly accessible. The results inform plans for energy efficiency through building retrofit in which the integration of the social dimension and practices may contribute to maximizing the impact of the intervention and to limiting energy performance gap.
Highlights
Building retrofit is an established strategy enabling a substantial reduction of energy use [1,2,3], most notably for space heating; it is pursued mostly by improving the quality of the building fabric through high performance thermal insulation or other techniques, and introducing high efficiency heat recovery on ventilation
The study reported in this paper provides evidence of the energy performance gap, which is an unintended consequence identified with respect to the post-retrofit stage [17]
We elaborate on post-retrofit condi3tioofn2s5 and we focus on the energy performance gap and its causes
Summary
Building retrofit is an established strategy enabling a substantial reduction of energy use [1,2,3], most notably for space heating; it is pursued mostly by improving the quality of the building fabric through high performance thermal insulation or other techniques, and introducing high efficiency heat recovery on ventilation. Pushed by EU directives, plans have been developed by European countries for the renovation of the building stock [4,5], especially including public and social housing [6,7,8]. These actions are expected to reduce final building energy use and constitute a major contribution for the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with buildings accounting for about a third of the global energy use, especially for space heating [1,9]. Reducing the energy use in this sector, namely through building retrofit, is crucial to meet the European Commission’s target of cutting GHG emissions down by at least 40% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 from their 1990 levels [13]
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