Energy efficient retrofit and life cycle assessment of an apartment building

While new buildings should be designed as intelligent low or zero-energy buildings, refurbishment of the existing building stock may present even a greater challenge, when in particular financing of the necessary investments to energy saving measures poses the biggest barrier. As the residential sector in the EU is responsible for about 40% of the total energy consumption and up to 40 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions, the residential building stock offers high potential for energy savings. By applying the life cycle assessment, it is possible to optimise the social, economic and environmental aspects, starting from the extraction of raw materials, up to the final disposal of waste materials. A case study of a selected representative residential building located in Slovakia is presented, for which the cost-optimal levels of energy performance are determined in terms of life-cycle costs of the building. Three variants of renovation were defined, each variant having different level of thermal insulation of building constructions. The method of Life-Cycle Costs was used to evaluate the economic feasibility of the suggested renovation scenarios for the apartment house. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.