Methodologies for Assessment of Building's Energy Efficiency and Conservation: A Policy-Maker View

Recent global peer-review reports have concluded on importance of buildings in tacking the energy security and climate change challenges. To integrate the buildings energy efficiency into the policy agenda, significant research efforts have been recently done. More specifically, the public domain provides a bulk of literature on the application of buildings-related efficiency technologies and behavioural patterns, barriers to penetration of these practices, policies to overcome these barriers. From the policy-making perspective it is useful to understand how far our understanding of building energy efficiency goes and the approaches and methodologies are behind such assessment.Buildings, energy efficiency potential, greenhouse gas mitigation, policy assessment, energy policy impact evaluation, sectoral efficiency targets

Energetische Sanierung: Handlungsbedarf auf vielen Ebenen

Um Kosten, Energieimporte und CO2-Emissionen zu reduzieren, ist im Energiekonzept der Bundesregierung vorgesehen, den Wärmebedarf für Gebäude bis 2020 um 20 Prozent und den Primärenergiebedarf bis 2050 um 80 Prozent zu senken. Dazu soll der Anteil der jährlich energetisch sanierten Gebäude von 0,8 Prozent auf zwei Prozent erhöht werden. Bei zwei Prozent energetischen Sanierungen pro Jahr wird jedes Gebäude bis 2050 nur einmal erreicht - so muss jede einzelne Sanierung umfassend sein, um eine 80-prozentige Reduktion des Primärenergiebedarfs zu erreichen. Die auf einer Befragung von 2 000 Haushalten basierende Untersuchung zeigt, wie Haushalte in allen Phasen der Entscheidung und Umsetzung von energetischen Sanierungsmaßnahmen gezielt unterstützt werden können. Zur Steigerung von Umfang und Rate energetischer Sanierungen müssen die entsprechenden Politikinstrumente allerdings gestärkt und weiterentwickelt werden. So können bessere Informationen die Aufmerksamkeit für energetische Sanierungen steigern, zum Beispiel mit detaillierten Heizkostenabrechnungen, weiterentwickelten Energieausweisen und mit der besseren Vermittlung der Vorteile thermischen Komforts in sanierten Gebäuden. Um Haushalte bei der Entscheidung für eine energetische Sanierung zu unterstützten, sollten Beratungen und finanzielle Förderung ausgebaut und auf umfassende energetische Sanierungen konzentriert werden. Ausbildung, Weiterbildung und Zertifizierung von Handwerkern haben Einfluss auf die Qualität energetischer Sanierungen und bestimmen, ob diese einfach, erfolgreich und damit nachahmenswert sind

Thermal Efficiency Retrofit of Residential Buildings: The German Experience

The German government has committed to reducing the primary energy demand of buildings by 80% by 2050. Achieving this reduction will require foremost efficiency improvements, with a first milestone of a 20% reduction in heat demand levels by 2020. Given that about 80% of today’s building stock will remain in place beyond 2050, thermal retrofit of this existing building stock is essential (Figure 1). At the current rate of retrofit, however, only a fraction of the required reduction in thermal energy demand will be reached by 2050. Therefore, both scale and depth of retrofit need to be increased: • The rate at which outer walls are being thermally retrofitted in Germany is currently ca. 0.8% per year for residential buildings; the government target for thermal retrofits is 2% [11]. Reaching this target will be more cost effective if thermal retrofits are linked to general, non-thermal retrofits that buildings owners pursue for non-energy related reasons (e.g. the current non-thermal retrofit rate, hence the retrofit rate that does not include energy efficiency improvements, for outside walls is 2.4%) [11]. • The depth of thermal retrofits today varies significantly, ranging from single measures delivering small overall improvements to deep comprehensive retrofits that may exceed the performance of new builds by up to 50%. Since a 2% retrofit rate only allows for each building to be retrofitted once before 2050, the overall efficiency improvement can only be achieved if all thermal retrofits are deep

The Name of the Concept STUDENT in Russian and English Languages: on Lexicographical Material

One of the key figures in international and national education is a student. In this regard, the article examines the lexical representation of the concept STUDENT in two developed (literary) languages of our time - English and Russian. Attention focuses on the character of interpretation of the words "Student" and "student", which are going back to the same etymon, respectively, in English and Russian dictionaries. As a source of practical material the lexicographical works published in XX - XXI centuries are used. Comparative analysis of the definitions of the named keywords of the concept STUDENT reveals the difference in sememe and seme filling of the word-equivalents in English and Russian

Meeting Energy Concept Targets for Residential Retrofits in Germany: Economic Viability, Financial Support, and Energy Savings

In the 2010 Energy Concept, the German government committed to reducing the primary energy requirement of buildings by 80% by 2050 and to increase the thermal retrofit rate from 0.8% to 2% per year. The 2% target is less than the 3%1 rate at which outer walls are currently being renovated each year, so it is achievable even if the government only targets buildings that are already planning a renovation. If a 2% retrofit rate were achieved, most German buildings would have thermal retrofits by 2050. However, in order to achieve the 80% reduction of the primary energy requirement in the building sector, each thermal retrofit has to be „deep‟; that is, it must reduce the energy requirement by around 80%. This paper addresses three questions this raises: 1. What are the costs of deep thermal retrofit for the owner of the building? Is it economically viable? 2. What scale of financial support will be required if the thermal retrofit rate increases to 2% per year? 3. How much energy could be saved

Low carbon scenarios for higher thermal comfort in the residential building sector of South Eastern Europe

The paper presents the residential sector building typology, thermal energy balance, and scenarios prepared at several levels of sector segmentation to assist the design of low-carbon development policies for Albania, Serbia, and Montenegro. The research is breakthrough for developing Europe and could be replicated in its countries. The paper describes methodological steps and selected results. First, representative building types were identified; their energy performances by end-use, retrofit packages, as well as associated costs were assessed. Second, this information was inserted into a bottom-up simulation model prepared in the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP) software. Using it, sector energy balances, the reference scenario, as well as moderate and advanced low-carbon high-thermal-comfort scenarios were prepared. The low-carbon scenarios assumed ambitious regulatory and financial policies. It was found that due to fuel poverty partial and intermittent heating is a typical situation; therefore, the thermal demand as predicted by the models applied to the different segments of the dwelling stock is much higher than its actual consumption. Also, actual consumption by energy source was found not fitting official energy balances because households use more wood and more heating systems than officially reported. In 2030, the moderate and ambitious scenarios lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions by 23–73% and 16–73% respectively versus the reference, offering however at the same time higher thermal comfort. The priority is to retrofit small buildings constructed after 1991 in Albania and those built in 1971–1990 in Montenegro and Serbia. Assuming the discount rate of 4% and counting saved energy costs as benefits, almost all scenarios are cost-effective as a whole on the country level, however not for many building categories. Therefore, not only saved energy costs but also other benefits should be monetized and compared to the scenario costs that present the next research opportunity

Ophiolite association of Cape Fiolent (western part of the Mountainous Crimea) – the upper age constraint according to the U-Pb isotope dating of plagiorhyolites (Monakh Cliff)

The article presents the results of U-Pb isotope dating (SHRIMP-II, VSEGEI, Saint Petersburg) of zircon crystals extracted from plagiorhyolites of the Monakh Cliff in the area of Cape Fiolent in the western part of the Mountainous Crimea (southern suburb of Sevastopol). a concordant age estimate of 168.3±1.3 Ma was obtained from 20 zircon crystals. It exactly corresponds to the Bajocian/Bathonian boundary of the Middle Jurassic according to the International Chronostratigraphic Chart (February 2022 version). The available results of isotope dating of igneous rocks from the Mountainous Crimea, as well as their geochemical typification are synthesised. The plagiorhyolites of the Monakh Cliff in the area of Cape Fiolent are spatially, and most likely paragenetically, associated with the wallrock (Cape Vinogradny) and ore (Heraclea Plateau on the cognominal peninsula) massive sulphide formations, as well as pillow basalts, gabbroids, and serpentinized hyperbasites, combined into the ophiolite association of Cape Fiolent. The obtained dating is the upper age limit for the entire ophiolite association of Cape Fiolent