Energy saving potential by retrofitting residential buildings in Europe

The national building typologies can be used as data sources for forecasting and evaluating the energy saving potential and the carbon dioxide emission reductions for each European country. Thereby the main objective of the IEE TABULA project has been to create a harmonized structure of the European building typologies and to identify representative building types. Two levels of building retrofit have been considered: a standard refurbishment, applying measures which are commonly used in the country; an advanced refurbishment, applying measures which reflect the best available technologies. The evaluation of each reference building type has been performed in each country by using the national EPBD asset rating method and by showing the energy performance before and after the refurbishment. Statistical information of construction methods and of heating systems has made possible the use of the reference building types as models for the assessment of the energy performance of the whole national building stock.