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Harvesting big data from residential building energy performance certificates

Retrofitting and climate change mitigation insights at a regional scale

Bibliographic Data

ID15545147
AuthorsJoão Pedro Gouveia (0000-0002-7360-1363, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, corresponding author), Pedro Palma (0000-0003-4274-5169, Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Year2019
Volume14
Issue9
Pages095007-095007
Publication date2019-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/ab3781
OpenAlexW2965593452
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited32

The reduction of energy consumption and the increase in energy efficiency is currently an important cornerstone of EU policy. Energy performance certificates (EPCs) were implemented as one of the tools to promote this agenda, and are used for the energy performance assessment of buildings. In this study, the characteristics of the Portuguese dwelling stock are regionally analysed using data from approximately 523,000 Portuguese residential EPCs. Furthermore, a bottom-up building typology approach is used to assess the regional energy needs impact of retrofitting actions and to estimate the heating and cooling energy performance gaps of the whole dwelling stock, as well as the potential CO 2 emissions resulting from the gaps’ potential offset due to increase thermal comfort. The results show that Portuguese residential buildings have very low energy performance, with windows and roofs being identified as the most energy inefficient elements. Roof retrofitting has the highest potential for the reduction of energy needs. The estimated heating and cooling energy performance gap amount to very significant percentages, due to the poor performing building stock but also very low energy consumption levels, with probable consequences for the thermal comfort of occupants. Assuming the current energy mix, carbon emissions would be 9.8 and 20.2 times higher associated with heating and cooling, respectively, if the actual final energy consumption were to match the estimated theoretical values derived from building regulation. This study demonstrates several application cases and leverages the potential of the individual EPC, increasing the detail in the dwelling stock characterization and energy performance estimation, revealing its value for energy retrofit and climate change mitigation assessments, as well as establishing the ground for future work related to building retrofits, energy efficiency measure implementation, climate change mitigation, thermal comfort, and energy poverty studies

Economics · Efficient energy use · Energy consumption · Energy performance · Environmental economics · Geography · Greenhouse gas · Meteorology · Retrofitting · Stock (firearms · Thermal comfort · Building Energy and Comfort Optimization · Energy Efficiency and Management · Engineering · Environmental Science · Sustainable Building Design and Assessment

  • It Starts at Home

    Open Access•Pedro Palma Calorio, Pedro Palma et al.•People Place and Policy Online•2022

  • How much will it cost? An energy renovation analysis for the Portuguese dwelling stock

    Open Access•Pedro Palma, João Pedro Gouveia et al.•Sustainable Cities and Society•2022

  • The future of EPCs

    Open Access•Mugarra Aitziber, Nuno Cruz et al.•Urban Governance•2025

  • Loops, triangles, and transitions - Participatory Systems Mapping of energy poverty policies

    Open Access•Katherine Mahoney, Rita Lopes et al.•Energy Research & Social Science•2025

  • Systematizing and upscaling urban climate change mitigation

    Open Access•Felix Creutzig, Xuemei Bai et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2020

  • The role of sectoral coverage in emission abatement costs

    Open Access•Qifeng Zhang, Kai Fang et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2022

  • A tool for verifying energy performance certificates and improving the knowledge of the residential sector

    Open Access•Jesús Las-Heras-Casas, Jesús Las‐Heras‐Casas et al.•Sustainable Cities and Society•2018

  • Can We Generalize from Case Studies

    Paul F Steinberg•Global Environmental Politics•2015

Unique citing works6
Citations per year1
Citation span2020 - 2025 (6)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 6

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