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State of the Irish housing stock—Modelling the heat losses of Ireland's existing detached rural housing stock & estimating the benefit of thermal retrofit measures on this stock

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  • Ahern, Ciara
  • Griffiths, Philip
  • O'Flaherty, Micheál

Abstract

Ireland's housing stock has been identified as being amongst the least energy efficient in Northern Europe. Consequently, atmospheric emissions are greater than necessary. Government funded schemes have been introduced to incentivise the uptake of thermal retrofit measures in the domestic Irish market. A study of Ireland's housing highlights the dominance of detached houses (43%), 72% of which are rurally located and are predominantly heated with fuel oil. This paper investigates the economic and carbon case for thermal retrofit measures to the existing detached, oil centrally heated, rural housing stock. The study found the case for energy efficiency measures to be categorical and supports the Irish Government's focus on energy efficiency policy measures. Thermal retrofit measures in the detached housing stock have the potential to realise an averaged 65% theoretical reduction in heating costs and CO2 emissions for houses constructed prior to 1979 (coinciding with the introduction of building regulations) and around 26% for newer homes, thus offering a significant contribution (44%) to Ireland's residential carbon abatement projections and hence in meeting the EU's directives on energy and carbon. The greatest savings (36%) of Ireland's carbon abatement projections result from improving the energy efficiency of the pre 1979 stock.

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  • Ahern, Ciara & Griffiths, Philip & O'Flaherty, Micheál, 2013. "State of the Irish housing stock—Modelling the heat losses of Ireland's existing detached rural housing stock & estimating the benefit of thermal retrofit measures on this stock," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 139-151.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:55:y:2013:i:c:p:139-151
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.11.039
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Cremer, Leo & Weber, Christine, 2022. "Deep energy retrofits: How effective and robust are policy instruments?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    3. Goggins, Gary & Rau, Henrike & Moran, Paul & Fahy, Frances & Goggins, Jamie, 2022. "The role of culture in advancing sustainable energy policy and practice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Laura Carnieletto & Borja Badenes & Marco Belliardi & Adriana Bernardi & Samantha Graci & Giuseppe Emmi & Javier F. Urchueguía & Angelo Zarrella & Antonino Di Bella & Giorgia Dalla Santa & Antonio Gal, 2019. "A European Database of Building Energy Profiles to Support the Design of Ground Source Heat Pumps," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-23, June.
    5. Galatioto, A. & Ciulla, G. & Ricciu, R., 2017. "An overview of energy retrofit actions feasibility on Italian historical buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 991-1000.
    6. Matthew Collins & John Curtis, 2017. "Value for money in energy efficiency retrofits in Ireland: grant provider and grant recipients," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(51), pages 5245-5267, November.
    7. Amar Bennadji & Mohammed Seddiki & Jamal Alabid & Richard Laing & David Gray, 2022. "Predicting Energy Savings of the UK Housing Stock under a Step-by-Step Energy Retrofit Scenario towards Net-Zero," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, April.
    8. Dineen, D. & Rogan, F. & Ó Gallachóir, B.P., 2015. "Improved modelling of thermal energy savings potential in the existing residential stock using a newly available data source," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(P1), pages 759-767.
    9. Colclough, Shane & Griffiths, Philip, 2016. "Financial analysis of an installed small scale seasonal thermal energy store," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 422-428.
    10. George M. Stavrakakis & Panagiotis L. Zervas & Konstantinos Terzis & Panagiotis Langouranis & Panagiota Saranti & Yorgos J. Stephanedes, 2023. "Exploitation of Mediterranean Cooperation Projects’ Tools for the Development of Public Buildings’ Energy Efficiency Plans at Local Level: A Case Study in Greece," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-33, April.
    11. Ballarini, Ilaria & Corrado, Vincenzo & Madonna, Francesco & Paduos, Simona & Ravasio, Franco, 2017. "Energy refurbishment of the Italian residential building stock: energy and cost analysis through the application of the building typology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 148-160.

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    Keywords

    Domestic; Detached; Retrofit;
    All these keywords.

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