Achieving Nearly Zero Energy Multi-family Houses in Cyprus through Energy Refurbishments

Abstract

Residential buildings account for the 63% of the total energy consumption of the building stock. The existing residential building stock exceeds the number of newly built dwellings in most developed countries. Therefore, the energy efficient renovation of the existing housing stock is imperative in order to reduce the building energy consumption. For this reason, European Union ranked the improvement of the buildings' energy performance as a high priority in its research agenda. Following Europe's 20:20:20 objective, this case study investigates refurbishment scenarios in order to achieve Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) in Cyprus. The research focuses on the Multi-family House typology, as classified in the framework of the Intelligent Energy Europe EPISCOPE project and specifically on retrofitting a Multi-family building constructed after 2006. A representative Multi-family building from the corresponding residential building typology in Cyprus was chosen and modelled using the software interface of the official Simplified Building Energy Model tool (iSBEM_Cy) for issuing Energy Performance Certificates (EPC). The study investigates whether it is possible for such a building to reach the Nearly Zero Energy Building standards with the implementation of the national energy performance requirements and identifies the lurking obstacles and challenges through building simulations.