Energy retrofitting of heritage-protected buildings: Establishing representative case studies

Abstract

Europe aims to be carbon neutral by 2050. Efforts concerning the building stock are manifested in directives and programmes that aim to increase the renovation rate. While these efforts are a great starting point, there is a need for more research targeting heritage-protected buildings in cold climates. The challenge is that energy retrofitting and heritage protection are often looked at independently, while a combination is required to account for possible retrofitting limitations associated with buildings otherwise not part of energy-saving efforts. The main objective of the paper is to establish the energy retrofitting potential of buildings under heritage protection in Norway, on both national and local levels. Buildings are categorised according to their characteristics, including building typology, construction period, main construction materials, and heritage protection classes. The proposed workflow which highlights the most representative case studies required to retrofit the heritage-protected building stock, includes retrofitting measures, and a prediction of the overall effect on the respective building stock. Policymakers specifically can profit from the result that less than 10 case studies are required per covered building typology, locally and nationally, to account for more than half of the respective building stock. While the analyses cover buildings in Norway, the approach can be applied on an international scale analogously.