Cost-optimum analysis of building fabric renovation in a Swedish multi-story residential building

• We performed energy balance simulation for a building before and after renovation.
• The cost of energy for space heating and the cost of renovation were calculated.
• We analysed cost-optimum measures for renovation of building fabric elements.
• The contribution of economic parameters and building elements’ lifespan are analysed.
• The cost-optimum measures are more sensitive to economic parameters than lifespans.

In this study, we analysed the cost-optimum level of building fabric elements renovation in a multi-story residential building. We calculated final energy use for space heating of the building considering a wide range of energy efficiency measures, for exterior walls, basement walls, attic floor and windows. Different extra insulation thicknesses for considered opaque elements and different U-values for new windows were used as energy efficiency measures. We calculated difference between the marginal saving of energy cost for space heating and the investment cost of implemented energy efficiency measures, in order to find the cost-optimum measure for each element. The implications of building lifespans, annual energy price increase and discount rate on the optimum measure were also analysed. The results of the analysis indicate that the contribution of energy efficiency measures to the final energy use reduces, significantly, by increasing the thickness of extra insulation and by reducing the U-value of new windows. We considered three scenarios of business as usual (BAU), intermediate and sustainability, considering different discount rates and energy price increase. The results of this analysis suggest that the sustainability scenario may offer, approximately, 100% increase in the optimum thickness of extra insulation compared to BAU scenario. However, the implication of different lifespans of 40, 50 or 60 years, on the optimum measure appears to be either negligible or very small, depending on the chosen scenario. We also calculated the corresponding U-value of the optimum measures in order to compare them with the current Swedish building code requirements and passive house criteria. The results indicate that all optimum measures meet the Swedish building code. None of the optimum measures, however, meet the passive house criteria in BAU scenario. This study suggests that the employed method of building renovation cost-optimum analyses can be also applied on new building construction to find the cost-optimum design from energy conservation point of view.