The Impact of Energy Renovation on Continuously and Intermittently Heated Residential Buildings in Southern Europe

To achieve carbon neutrality in the EU, it is important to renovate the existing EU residential buildings for a higher building energy efficiency. This study examines the impacts of several novel renovation technologies on energy consumption, CO₂ emissions and indoor climates in southern European residential buildings through building-level simulations. Three typical residential buildings in South Europe were chosen as the demo buildings to implement the novel technologies. The technologies were classified into passive, ventilation and generation packages, and then simulated independently under the intermittent and continuous heating schedules. Additionally, two final combinations of renovation technologies were also simulated to demonstrate the maximum energy and CO₂ emissions reduction potential of the demo buildings. All novel retrofit technologies manifested obvious effects on the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. Nevertheless, the effects were significantly affected by the heating schedule. When the intermittent heating schedule was switched to the continuous heating schedule, the relative energy conservation and CO₂ emissions reduction potential of the thermal insulation improvement measures (e.g., bio-aerogel thermal insulation) increased, while those of the generation measures (e.g., solar assisted heat pump) diminished. Renovation with the final combinations reduced the primary energy consumption by up to 66%, 74% and 65% in the continuously heated Greek, Portuguese and Spanish demo buildings, the corresponding CO₂ emissions reductions of which were 65%, 75% and 74%, respectively.