Energy Efficient Renovation of Belgian Houses: Sensitivity Analysis for Thermal Bridges

In this paper, the influence of construction details on the overall thermal insulation and energy demand in Belgian houses is examined. The research was carried out for 12 archetypal Belgian single family houses. For each house, nine typical construction details were selected. The Flemish EPBD method was used for an energy performance simulation before and after refurbishment. It can be concluded from this research that window joints refurbishment has a bigger impact than any other joint refurbishment. Another observation is that that the reduction of energy consumption due to refurbishment of construction joints is not linked to joint length.