Evaluation of several measures to improve the energy efficiency and CO2 emission in the European single-family houses

The building sector is responsible for 40% of the energy consumption and 36% of the CO2 emissions in the European Union. The present work investigates how the energy consumption, CO2 emissions and related costs are affected by different measures which can be adopted to satisfy the energy demand in EU single-family houses. To achieve this objective, several types of single-family houses and energy systems are analyzed in three climatic areas. The results show that a high insulation of the house envelope and the implementation of energy systems, which produce heat and electricity from renewable energy sources, are key measures to reduce the energy dependence and CO2 emissions in single-family houses. For heating and cooling systems, the energy systems based on ground coupled heat pumps had the lowest energy consumption but the systems based on district heating and biomass heaters had lower CO2 emissions. An inverse relationship between investment and operational cost is observed. The equipments with higher efficiency and lower CO2 emission have the highest and the lowest investment and operational costs respectively.

► We model several types of single-family houses and energy systems.
► We study the energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the EU single-family houses.
► Houses with an improvement of the insulation are 65% less energy intensive.
► Solar domestic hot water produces an energy savings at least of 75% in EU houses.
► The PV arrays are able to cover more than 70% of electrical needs in EU houses.