An integrated approach for financial and environmental cost optimisation of heating services

A four-year project has started in 2007 to develop a methodology that can be applied to optimize the Belgian dwelling stock. The aim of the project is to optimise buildings concerning their environmental impact, their financial cost and the quality they offer over the whole life cycle, from the production of primary raw materials to the final demolition and end-of-life treatment. In the first phase of the project the optimisation methodology is developed; i.e. environmental impacts are analysed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA); financial costs are calculated based on life cycle cost analyses (LCC); and the quality evaluation is based on multi-criteria analyses (MCA). The aim of the optimization is to realize the highest marginal quality improvement for the additional financial and environmental cost. In a second phase the developed methodology is translated into a work instrument and applied to different dwelling types. This paper goes more deeply into the role heating services play in the environmental and financial costs. For a typical Belgian dwelling initial and life cycle costs for commonly used as well as advanced heating configurations are compared. Since energy consumption for heating is dependent of the way the building envelope is built, the analysis is performed on two dwelling configurations with a different insulation level

Developing an integrated offer for sustainable renovations

Within an ERANET-ERACOBUILD project, this study investigates the opportunities and barriers to establish a “one stop shop” with an integrated supply side, to counteract the fragmented offer in sustainable renovation of single-family houses and to increase the level of knowledge, skills and innovations. Aspects of providing reliable information and guidance for house-owners are also included. Starting from a survey directed to the Flemish construction sector, we tried to distill the viewpoint and willingness of enterprises to cooperate in such a one-stop-shop idea. The survey concludes that the increase of holistic very low energy renovations is expected in a short time and that a large percentage of companies is willing to work together. However, socio-technical and know-how barriers to accomplish this still remain. With these results - and an analysis of existing websites providing an interface between suppliers and owner-occupants - business models, training and other activities will be set up to establish a one-stop shop model within the continuation of this project. A test case is foreseen.OTB ResearchOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen