CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Brenes Salazar, Jonathan |
|---|---|
| Title | The cost margins of new high energy performance buildings: a comparison based analysis |
| Summary | The Global Energy Assessment attributes one-third of global final energy use and energy-related CO2 emissions to buildings. This thesis investigates how the investment costs of high energy performance buildings compare to their conventional alternatives from an investment, energy efficiency and climate mitigation perspective. The study considers data for forty-eight buildings in temperate climate regions and three single family homes in a warmer climate region of Europe, taking a comparison-based approach that weighs cost data of new high energy performance constructions against their conventional alternatives. In addition to the additional investment costs, the research analyses the cost of conserved heating and total energy and the cost of conserved carbon where calculable. An important limitation for this study was the lack of detailed reference energy and cost data, which leads to a recommendation that building data gathering and reporting should be improved to enable more precise and comparable assessments. The results provide evidence that it is possible to build new high energy performance buildings—such as those meeting the passive house standard—at similar to lower construction costs than their current conventional alternatives. Energy savings of up to 90% are reachable with negative investment costs. Given the high share of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and the never ending expansion of the building stock, a transition towards lower energy demand frontiers is imperative. This thesis helps bridge the awareness gap that comes in the way of this transition by providing evidence that high-performance, low-cost new buildings are possible. |
| Supervisor | Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/salazar_jonathan.pdf |
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