Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A Multiple-Case Study of Passive House
Retrofits of School Buildings in Austria
Xavier Dequaire
Abstract Strong increases in energy efficiency in buildings is central to reducing
energy consumption and costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, tackling climate
change, and at the same time, improving energy security. The concept of ''nearly
zero energy buildings'' gives an indication of what is considered achievable, and
this has now been widely demonstrated for new buildings of all kinds. However, the
large number of buildings that have already been built emphasises the need to carry
out extensive energy efficiency upgrades of the existing building stock in order to
the ''nearly zero energy'' concept to achieve its real societal importance. This
article highlights retrofits of large buildings using Austrian schools as examples,
which have been chosen to illustrate reductions of more than 80 % in heat demand.
Key issues are addressed through a multiple-case study of four school retrofits in
Austria. All four buildings demonstrate the achievement of the energy efficiency
level of the Passivhaus standard for new buildings. They present a paradigm for this
form of upgrades and thus validate the Passivhaus standard.
1 Introduction
Recent years have seen the continuous strengthening of different legislations
concerning energy use, and in particular energy efficiency in buildings. As a broad
trend, particularly occurring across Europe, all new developments will be required
to reach the level of nearly zero energy buildings—and even the energy plus level
by 2020 (The European Parliament
2010
; Heinze and Voss
2009
; Marszal et al.
2011
; Srinivasan et al.
2012
). Heavy refurbishments will also have similar low-
energy requirements. New buildings, however, only represent one to two per cent
