IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i9p3908-d1643071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heat Recovery Ventilation and Thermal Insulation: Economic Decision-Making in Central European Households

Author

Listed:
  • Tomasz Schabek

    (Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, POW St 3/5, 90-255 Lodz, Poland)

  • Barbara Król

    (Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, Warszawska 24 St, 31-155 Cracow, Poland)

Abstract

Energy conservation has become a critical issue, especially in the context of global environmental challenges and rising energy costs. This article emphasizes the growing importance of sustainability by integrating technical evaluations of heat recovery ventilation (HRV) systems and energy demand reduction with an economic analysis of new detached buildings in Poland. We studied the economic efficiency of the application of HRV in the context of different insulation thicknesses and quantities of air exchanged. Through over 2500 building energy performance simulations, the study explores the economic and environmental interplay between investments in HRV and insulation technologies. The findings demonstrated that households can achieve significant energy savings, around 2600 kWh annually, by installing an HRV system. These savings are contingent upon various factors, including air exchange rates, insulation thickness, and the thermal properties of windows. The economic analysis revealed that economic benefits due to optimal insulation are in the range of EUR 1000–8600 and from EUR 500 up to 5900 regarding investment in HRV, depending on the energy price and intensity of ventilation.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomasz Schabek & Barbara Król, 2025. "Heat Recovery Ventilation and Thermal Insulation: Economic Decision-Making in Central European Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:9:p:3908-:d:1643071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/3908/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/9/3908/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:9:p:3908-:d:1643071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.