Role of temporary thermostat adjustments as a fast, low-cost measure in reducing energy imports

Abstract

Efforts to combat climate change involve long-term plans to reduce the energy demand and increase the share of locally generated renewable energy. However, a sudden change in the geopolitical situation may require an even more rapid response to reduce energy imports through energy-efficiency improvements. In the building sector, retrofits to the building envelope and heating systems are effective, yet time- and cost-intensive to improve energy efficiency. A fast, low-cost measure to address this need is to lower the temperature set-points in building heating systems to within comfortable limits. Here, we show the impact of reducing the temperature set-point by 1 °C on heating demand at different scales—building, regional, and national—using demand simulation of 240 Swiss building archetypes and clustering-based upscaling methods. We demonstrate a nearly 6% reduction in the residential space heating demand at the national level, about a third of which is met with natural gas. More importantly, the presented approach highlights potential implications of the proposed measure across a national residential building stock, considering differences in climate and building archetypes, as well as their spatial distribution.