Sustainable refurbishment of massive neighborhood housing located in semi-arid climate: Micro economic and energy-thermal evaluation

Abstract

The analysis of the technical-economic feasibility of the building envelope refurbishment in a typology of massive neighborhood housing existing in San Juan, Argentina, an oasis city with semi-arid climate, is presented. To meet this target, passive technological variants that improve its energy-thermal performance and procedures adapted to the availability of local data are developed, covering climatic, energy-thermal and economic aspects in the building field. The eight alternatives for improvements proposed allow savings in air conditioning consumption that vary between 33% and 56%, for initial investments between € 2,582.00 and € 4,186.00 at prices in September 2019, capital that is recovered between 6.8 and 11 years, in a 25-year of life-cycle with a constant annual interest rate of 3%. The proposed methodology is suitable for deciding on social housing policies and constitutes a solid basis for implementing promotion plans.