IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i10p1869-d115450.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of Energy Efficiency Measures and Retrofitting Solutions for Social Housing Buildings in Spain as a Way to Mitigate Energy Poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Aranda

    (Fundación CIRCE, Campus Río Ebro, Calle Mariano Esquilor Gómez, 15, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Ignacio Zabalza

    (Department of Mechanical Engineering and CIRCE Research Institute, University of Zaragoza, Calle María de Luna, 5, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Andrea Conserva

    (Fundación CIRCE, Campus Río Ebro, Calle Mariano Esquilor Gómez, 15, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Gema Millán

    (Fundación CIRCE, Campus Río Ebro, Calle Mariano Esquilor Gómez, 15, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

Abstract

Energy poverty is a common issue in social housing all over Europe, with a harder impact in Southern European countries. Social housing buildings play an important role in energy poverty. They are usually owned and managed by public institutions and usually share common characteristics and issues. Behavioural changes and energy retrofitting are interesting paths forward but some solutions do not fit well in this type of housing due to socioeconomic reasons. This paper makes a thorough analysis of possible energy efficiency measures in social housing buildings, characterizing them by energy and economic savings and investment and proposing different methods of prioritization. A rational approach of behavioural and retrofitting solutions that best fit into this particular housing type is delivered, with the aim to increase the thermal comfort of the residents and mitigate the energy poverty issue. Results show that there is a wide range of domestic efficiency measures to be applied in this type of dwellings at none or low costs, bringing annual savings per average dwelling of about 510 €/year (55% of initial energy costs) including measures both at domestic level, and at building level with a final aggregated payback of the investments to be about 1.5 years.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Aranda & Ignacio Zabalza & Andrea Conserva & Gema Millán, 2017. "Analysis of Energy Efficiency Measures and Retrofitting Solutions for Social Housing Buildings in Spain as a Way to Mitigate Energy Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-22, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1869-:d:115450
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1869/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1869/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nina Hall & Lygia Romanach & Stephanie Cook & Sarah Meikle, 2013. "Increasing Energy-Saving Actions in Low Income Households to Achieve Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(11), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Rosalyn A. V. Robison & Cathrine V. Jansson-Boyd, 2013. "Perspectives on Sustainability: Exploring the Views of Tenants in Supported Social Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(12), pages 1-23, December.
    3. Scarpellini, Sabina & Rivera-Torres, Pilar & Suárez-Perales, Inés & Aranda-Usón, Alfonso, 2015. "Analysis of energy poverty intensity from the perspective of the regional administration: Empirical evidence from households in southern Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 729-738.
    4. Rossano Albatici & Alessia Gadotti & Christian Baldessari & Michela Chiogna, 2016. "A Decision Making Tool for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Building Retrofitting Actions at the Regional Scale," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-17, September.
    5. Fabrizio Ascione & Nicola Bianco & Claudio De Stasio & Gerardo Maria Mauro & Giuseppe Peter Vanoli, 2017. "Addressing Large-Scale Energy Retrofit of a Building Stock via Representative Building Samples: Public and Private Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Emanuel Bergasse & Wojciech Paczyński & Marek Dąbrowski & Luc De Wulf, 2013. "The Relationship Between Energy and Socio-Economic Development in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean," CASE Network Reports 0112, CASE-Center for Social and Economic Research.
    7. Banfi, Silvia & Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini, Massimo & Jakob, Martin, 2008. "Willingness to pay for energy-saving measures in residential buildings," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 503-516, March.
    8. Sadineni, Suresh B. & France, Todd M. & Boehm, Robert F., 2011. "Economic feasibility of energy efficiency measures in residential buildings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2925-2931.
    9. Hasim Altan & Nicola Gasperini & Sam Moshaver & Antonio Frattari, 2015. "Redesigning Terraced Social Housing in the UK for Flexibility Using Building Energy Simulation with Consideration of Passive Design," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-20, May.
    10. Healy, John D. & Clinch, J. Peter, 2004. "Quantifying the severity of fuel poverty, its relationship with poor housing and reasons for non-investment in energy-saving measures in Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 207-220, January.
    11. Matthias Braubach & Arnaud Ferrand, 2013. "Energy efficiency, housing, equity and health," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(3), pages 331-332, June.
    12. Jenkins, D.P., 2010. "The value of retrofitting carbon-saving measures into fuel poor social housing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 832-839, February.
    13. Patrick Nussbaumer & Francesco Fuso Nerini & Ijeoma Onyeji & Mark Howells, 2013. "Global Insights Based on the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(5), pages 1-17, May.
    14. Scarpellini, Sabina & Sanz Hernández, M. Alexia & Llera-Sastresa, Eva & Aranda, Juan A. & López Rodríguez, María Esther, 2017. "The mediating role of social workers in the implementation of regional policies targeting energy poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 367-375.
    15. Liddell, Christine & Morris, Chris, 2010. "Fuel poverty and human health: A review of recent evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 2987-2997, June.
    16. Alexandru Maxim & Costică Mihai & Constantin-Marius Apostoaie & Cristian Popescu & Costel Istrate & Ionel Bostan, 2016. "Implications and Measurement of Energy Poverty across the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-20, May.
    17. Eva Llera-Sastresa & Sabina Scarpellini & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Juan Aranda & Ignacio Zabalza-Bribián & Alfonso Aranda-Usón, 2017. "Energy Vulnerability Composite Index in Social Housing, from a Household Energy Poverty Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-20, April.
    18. Montserrat Pareja Eastaway & Ignacio San Martin Varo, 2002. "The Tenure Imbalance in Spain: The Need for Social Housing Policy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(2), pages 283-295, February.
    19. Hyein Yi & Sanghyo Lee & Jaejun Kim, 2017. "An ESCO Business Model Using CER for Buildings’ Energy Retrofit," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-21, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dong, Kangyin & Dou, Yue & Jiang, Qingzhe, 2022. "Income inequality, energy poverty, and energy efficiency: Who cause who and how?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Scarpellini, Sabina & Alexia Sanz Hernández, M. & Moneva, José M. & Portillo-Tarragona, Pilar & Rodríguez, María Esther López, 2019. "Measurement of spatial socioeconomic impact of energy poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 320-331.
    3. Maryam Khazaee & Siamak Hosseinzadeh & Saeed Khorrami & Davide Astiaso Garcia & Mosè Ricci, 2024. "Volumetric Add-On Retrofit Strategy with Multi-Benefit Approach toward Nearly Zero Energy Buildings Target," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-21, July.
    4. Sergio Gómez Melgar & Miguel Ángel Martínez Bohórquez & José Manuel Andújar Márquez, 2020. "uhuMEBr: Energy Refurbishment of Existing Buildings in Subtropical Climates to Become Minimum Energy Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-35, March.
    5. Maatouk Khoukhi & Abeer Fuad Darsaleh & Sara Ali, 2020. "Retrofitting an Existing Office Building in the UAE Towards Achieving Low-Energy Building," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Fernando Martín-Consuegra & Fernando de Frutos & Ignacio Oteiza & Carmen Alonso & Borja Frutos, 2020. "Minimal Monitoring of Improvements in Energy Performance after Envelope Renovation in Subsidized Single Family Housing in Madrid," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-26, December.
    7. Grazini, Chiara, 2024. "Energy poverty as capacity deprivation: A study of social housing using the partially ordered set," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Ferrari, Simone & Blázquez, Teresa & Dall'O', Giuliano, 2021. "Energy performance indexes based on monitored data of social housing buildings in Northern Italy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    9. Wang, Ying & Wang, Yong & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2023. "How does digital economy affect energy poverty? Analysis from the global perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    10. Katerina Sojkova & Martin Volf & Antonin Lupisek & Roman Bolliger & Tomas Vachal, 2019. "Selection of Favourable Concept of Energy Retrofitting Solution for Social Housing in the Czech Republic Based on Economic Parameters, Greenhouse Gases, and Primary Energy Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-26, November.
    11. John M. Polimeni & Mihaela Simionescu & Raluca I. Iorgulescu, 2022. "Energy Poverty and Personal Health in the EU," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-21, September.
    12. Wenyang Han & Meng Han & Menglong Zhang & Ying Zhao & Kai Xie & Yin Zhang, 2024. "Historic Building Renovation with Solar System towards Zero-Energy Consumption: Feasibility Analysis and Case Optimization Practice in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-16, February.
    13. Pilar Mercader-Moyano & Paula M. Esquivias & Radu Muntean, 2020. "Eco-Efficient Analysis of a Refurbishment Proposal for a Social Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-31, August.
    14. Sangeetha Chandrashekeran & Viktoria Noka & Stefan Bouzarovski, 2022. "Energy Poverty: Measurement and Governance in Europe and Lessons for Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(4), pages 491-502, December.
    15. Hansjörg Drewello, 2022. "Towards a Theory of Local Energy Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Andrea Boeri & Valentina Gianfrate & Saveria Olga Murielle Boulanger & Martina Massari, 2020. "Future Design Approaches for Energy Poverty: Users Profiling and Services for No-Vulnerable Condition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-18, April.
    17. Bragolusi, Paolo & D'Alpaos, Chiara, 2022. "The valuation of buildings energy retrofitting: A multiple-criteria approach to reconcile cost-benefit trade-offs and energy savings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    18. Stefan Bouzarovski & Harriet Thomson & Marine Cornelis, 2021. "Confronting Energy Poverty in Europe: A Research and Policy Agenda," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, February.
    19. Dania Ortiz & Vítor Leal & Isabel Azevedo, 2020. "A Review of the Measures and Instruments to Promote Efficiency and Renewable Energy in Domestic Water Heating," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-21, October.
    20. Zhaoxia Wang & Jing Zhao, 2018. "Optimization of Passive Envelop Energy Efficient Measures for Office Buildings in Different Climate Regions of China Based on Modified Sensitivity Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-28, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Scarpellini, Sabina & Alexia Sanz Hernández, M. & Moneva, José M. & Portillo-Tarragona, Pilar & Rodríguez, María Esther López, 2019. "Measurement of spatial socioeconomic impact of energy poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 320-331.
    2. Eva Llera-Sastresa & Sabina Scarpellini & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Juan Aranda & Ignacio Zabalza-Bribián & Alfonso Aranda-Usón, 2017. "Energy Vulnerability Composite Index in Social Housing, from a Household Energy Poverty Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Recep Ulucak & Ramazan Sari & Seyfettin Erdogan & Rui Alexandre Castanho, 2021. "Bibliometric Literature Analysis of a Multi-Dimensional Sustainable Development Issue: Energy Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Pilar Murias & Beatriz Valcárcel-Aguiar & Rosa María Regueiro-Ferreira, 2020. "A Territorial Estimate for Household Energy Vulnerability: An Application for Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Zhang, Dayong & Li, Jiajia & Han, Phoumin, 2019. "A multidimensional measure of energy poverty in China and its impacts on health: An empirical study based on the China family panel studies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 72-81.
    6. George E. Halkos & Panagiotis-Stavros C. Aslanidis, 2023. "Addressing Multidimensional Energy Poverty Implications on Achieving Sustainable Development," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-30, April.
    7. Dogan, Eyup & Madaleno, Mara & Taskin, Dilvin, 2021. "Which households are more energy vulnerable? Energy poverty and financial inclusion in Turkey," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. Agnieszka Biernat-Jarka & Paulina Trębska & Sławomir Jarka, 2021. "The Role of Renewable Energy Sources in Alleviating Energy Poverty in Households in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Euan Phimister, Esperanza Vera-Toscano and Deborah Roberts, 2015. "The Dynamics of Energy Poverty: Evidence from Spain," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    10. Indre Siksnelyte-Butkiene, 2021. "A Systematic Literature Review of Indices for Energy Poverty Assessment: A Household Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-27, September.
    11. Boqiang Lin & Michael Adu Okyere, 2020. "Multidimensional Energy Poverty and Mental Health: Micro-Level Evidence from Ghana," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Alice Renè Di Rocco & Maria Rosa Trovato & Rosa Giuseppina Caponetto & Francesco Nocera, 2025. "Energy Poverty and Territorial Resilience: An Integrative Review and an Inclusive Governance Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-26, September.
    13. Barbara Kryk & Malgorzata K. Guzowska, 2023. "Assessing the Level of Energy Poverty Using a Synthetic Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index in EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-31, January.
    14. Li, Kang & Lloyd, Bob & Liang, Xiao-Jie & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "Energy poor or fuel poor: What are the differences?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 476-481.
    15. Stefan Bouzarovski & Saska Petrova & Sergio Tirado-Herrero, 2014. "From Fuel Poverty to Energy Vulnerability: The Importance of Services, Needs and Practices," SPRU Working Paper Series 2014-25, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    16. Scarpellini, Sabina & Sanz Hernández, M. Alexia & Llera-Sastresa, Eva & Aranda, Juan A. & López Rodríguez, María Esther, 2017. "The mediating role of social workers in the implementation of regional policies targeting energy poverty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 367-375.
    17. Dalia Streimikiene & Vidas Lekavičius & Tomas Baležentis & Grigorios L. Kyriakopoulos & Josef Abrhám, 2020. "Climate Change Mitigation Policies Targeting Households and Addressing Energy Poverty in European Union," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-24, July.
    18. Hamza, Neveen & Gilroy, Rose, 2011. "The challenge to UK energy policy: An ageing population perspective on energy saving measures and consumption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 782-789, February.
    19. Hwai-Shuh Shieh & Syed Ahsan Ali Shah, 2025. "Developing a Fuzzy MCDA-Based Multidimensional Index to Measure Energy Poverty in Developing Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 499-531, January.
    20. Yiming Xiao & Han Wu & Guohua Wang & Hong Mei, 2021. "Mapping the Worldwide Trends on Energy Poverty Research: A Bibliometric Analysis (1999–2019)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-22, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1869-:d:115450. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.