On the classification of large residential buildings stocks by sample typologies for energy planning purposes

Abstract

Local and central administrations are often called to properly allocate economic resources intended for the territorial energy planning, on the basis of the performances achieved by implementing energy conservation measures. Particularly in the residential sector, that represents one of the most relevant sector for the energy demand, effective and reliable evaluation tools are required for this aim. Unfortunately, building stocks are characterized by a very large number of buildings that are referred to different construction periods and are equipped with a variety of appliances and tools, other than with different heating and cooling systems. This means that the whole energy consumption of a large territorial context cannot be obtained by simply summing up the energy requirements of each single dwelling and building. A procedure is therefore needed that, by means of a suitable characterization of the building stock and of the structure of the energy consumption, allows to assess the whole residential energy requirements and the effects induced by energy conservation measures. To provide a contribution in this direction, a methodology is here introduced for the disaggregation of a given building stock into proper typologies that are representative of the different construction practices characterizing different periods of time. The climatic properties of sites are accounted for in this methodology as well. Furthermore, the whole energy consumption is assessed using different approaches for heating, cooling, lighting and other electric appliances. This multiple approach relies on statistical data and on the application of well established calculation tools for the energy demand of buildings. In this way “virtual” sample buildings are defined as representative of the considered building stock. The method has been applied to the entire building sector of the Sicilian Region and its reliability has been checked against real data. The found value of the overall energy demand of the residential sector is 1100 ktoe/y, while the actual value coming from official statistics was 1192 ktoe in the year 2011; this signals the fair reliability of the method.