A Long-term Strategy for Energy and Cost Performance Improvement of Existing Residential Buildings: Step-by-step Renovation in Turkey

Abstract

Recast version of Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD-Recast) obligate member states to keep the cost analysis in parallel with the energy analysis during the renovation actions for the existing building by taking the cost-optimal level of minimum energy performance requirement to the account. Although this cost-optimal level is indicating the minimum cost level for a period, it can provide buildings’ owners with an enormous initial cost. One of the most challenging barriers to energy efficient and cost-optimal renovation of existing buildings is the reluctance of owners to involve in their project as an investor due to the high cost of application. Particularly in developing countries, such reluctance is more tangible as the governments are not capable of providing enough financial incentives for owners due to a large number of buildings that should be renovated and small available budget. A proper solution for the problem is to divide necessary actions for each building to certain sub-actions and apply them as a step-by-step renovation project. On the other hand, the progressive application of renovation activities has some restrictions. It is necessary to define the due amount for households and keep the cost of each step within the payable range. Moreover, the low rate of building renovation which affects the EU goals can be improved remarkably by application of step-by-step actions not only by increasing the number of owners’ contributions but also by improving the time of implementation, proper distribution of skilled labours and directed economic resources. This paper aims to assess the step-by-step application of the energy efficient renovation actions through energy and cost analysis under Turkey’s climatic, economic and sociological conditions. One of 26 reference residential buildings in Turkey is analysed in this paper. The due amount for each step is defined, and some renovation actions and their combinations applied to the case building and the results compared with the base condition. Then a proper combination of measures established based on the cost-optimal analyses. These appropriately combined actions are then divided into some sub-actions; following this, cost and energy studies are conducted again to determine the appropriate arrangement of sub-actions.