Building ownership, renovation investments, and energy performance - A study of multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg
Journal article, 2018

The European building stock was renewed at a rapid pace during the period 1950-1975. In many European countries, the building stock from this time needs to be renovated, and there are opportunities to introduce energy efficiency measures in the renovation process. Information availability and increasingly available analysis tools make it possible to assess the impact of policy and regulation. This article describes methods developed for analyzing investments in renovation and energy performance based on building ownership and inhabitant socio-economic information developed for Swedish authorities, to be used for the Swedish national renovations strategy in 2019. This was done by analyzing measured energy usage and renovation investments made during the last 30 years, coupled with building specific official information of buildings and resident area characteristics, for multi-family dwellings in Gothenburg (N = 6319). The statistical analyses show that more costly renovations lead to decreasing energy usage for heating, but buildings that have been renovated during the last decades have a higher energy usage when accounting for current heating system, ownership, and resident socio-economic background. It is appropriate to include an affordability aspect in larger renovation projects since economically disadvantaged groups are over-represented in buildings with poorer energy performance.

Rent affordability

Energy performance certificate

Renovation extent

Decision support

Energy retrofitting

Tenure

Author

Mikael Mangold

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Magnus Österbring

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Conny Overland

University of Gothenburg

Tim Johansson

Luleå University of Technology

Holger Wallbaum

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Sustainability

20711050 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 5 1684

Subject Categories

Construction Management

Environmental Analysis and Construction Information Technology

Energy Systems

DOI

10.3390/su10051684

More information

Latest update

5/29/2018