BPIE: Europe's buildings under the microscope - PU Europe
BPIE: Europe's buildings under the microscope - PU Europe
BPIE: Europe's buildings under the microscope - PU Europe
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and un-modernised. Compared to <strong>the</strong> original energy consumption, energy savings varied from around<br />
20% to over 90% for <strong>the</strong> highest level of performance, with corresponding costs in <strong>the</strong> range €100-<br />
800/m 2 . Ano<strong>the</strong>r study 44 based on Hungarian <strong>buildings</strong> derived much lower costs for a similar range of<br />
savings: from €50/m 2 to €300/m 2 .<br />
These figures should also be seen in <strong>the</strong> context of current and evolving practice in renovation across<br />
<strong>Europe</strong>. While <strong>the</strong>re is a great deal of experience on implementing single measures (e.g. window/boiler<br />
replacement, or insulation of walls/roofs), <strong>the</strong> experience of holistic “whole building” solutions is much<br />
more limited. Achievement of very high levels of energy saving, such that <strong>the</strong> building approaches<br />
nearly zero energy levels, requires deployment of <strong>buildings</strong>-integrated renewable technologies, and<br />
various energy efficiency measures which have a high cost improvement potential. This suggests that<br />
<strong>the</strong> cost of achieving high levels of energy saving will come down more rapidly over time than for <strong>the</strong><br />
more established measures which deliver more modest savings. It is also important to note that different<br />
national priorities will dictate to a significant extent <strong>the</strong> costs of different types of renovation.<br />
For example, a programme offering incentives for particular technologies would typically help to stimulate<br />
demand and over time, reduce <strong>the</strong> cost of <strong>the</strong> technology compared to ano<strong>the</strong>r country without <strong>the</strong><br />
programme or with a different energy price structure. In addition, long term renovation programmes<br />
generate consistent benefits in both construction and supply chain industries, with a significant job<br />
creation potential and a constant improvement of workers’ qualification and skills.<br />
Renovation databases have been established in <strong>the</strong> UK 45 and France 46 . At present, <strong>the</strong>se hold limited<br />
amounts of data, but provide a good example of <strong>the</strong> kind of knowledge base that needs to be built up in<br />
order to provide a more complete picture of <strong>the</strong> range of renovation activities, including building types,<br />
costs, savings and lessons learnt.<br />
These studies and data sources, toge<strong>the</strong>r with information provided by experts located in 29 countries<br />
across <strong>Europe</strong> and an extensive literature search, have provided <strong>the</strong> first attempt to quantify renovation<br />
investment costs at <strong>Europe</strong>an level. After allowing for differences in costs between higher cost and lower<br />
cost countries 47 , average costs for different levels of renovation have been derived in Table 3C1.<br />
Defining renovation levels and associated costs<br />
The term “renovation” 48 has been used by different commentators to describe a wide variety of<br />
improvements to an existing building or group of <strong>buildings</strong>. In <strong>the</strong> context of this report, “renovation” is<br />
taken to mean an upgrade to <strong>the</strong> energy performance, unless o<strong>the</strong>rwise specified.<br />
Qualitatively, it can be seen that a renovation to a building facade (i.e. walls and windows) will provide a<br />
different level of energy saving than one addressing all of <strong>the</strong> building envelope and its energy systems<br />
(HVAC, lighting etc.) as well as <strong>the</strong> installation of renewable technologies. There is <strong>the</strong>refore a need to<br />
categorise different levels of renovation.<br />
At its most basic, <strong>the</strong> energy performance of a building can be improved by <strong>the</strong> implementation of a<br />
single measure, such as a new boiler plant or <strong>the</strong> insulation of <strong>the</strong> roof space. Normally, <strong>the</strong>se types<br />
of measures might be termed “energy efficiency retrofit”, though for <strong>the</strong> purposes of this report, <strong>the</strong><br />
term “minor renovation” is proposed. Typically, energy savings of up to 30% might be expected by <strong>the</strong><br />
application of one to three low cost/easy to implement measures.<br />
44<br />
“Employment Impacts of a Large-Scale Deep Building Energy Renovate Programme in Hungary” - Ürge-Vorsatz et al, Central <strong>Europe</strong>an University<br />
45<br />
http://www.rethinkingrefurbishment.com/portal/<br />
46<br />
http://www.effinergie.org/site/Effinergie/70-ProjetsRealisations<br />
47<br />
Eurostat purchasing power data were used to normalise costs<br />
48<br />
“Retrofit” and “refurbishment” are often also used to describe essentially <strong>the</strong> same process.<br />
102 | <strong>Europe</strong>’s <strong>buildings</strong> <strong>under</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>microscope</strong>