Energy audit of a single-family house in a city in the middle of Sweden

Abstract

The world is currently submerged in two big problems: supply energy crisis and climate change. It is clear that society has to do its best to overcome these challenges, and one effective way to mitigate their effects is by conducting an energy audit, which helps to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the buildings, enabling improvements in their thermal efficiency. The main goal of this study was to carry out an energy audit on a century-old single- family house located in a city in the middle of Sweden. To achieve this, relevant data of the building was gathered such as the bills and some temperature and dimension measurements. Subsequently, the calculations of the energy losses and gains were done manually. From this step it was observed that almost 70 % of the thermal losses occurred due to transmission through the walls, windows and roof. To reduce these losses, potential energy-saving measures were studied, such as replacing the 2-panel windows with 3-panel windows and adding 200 mm of mineral wool to the roof. Both improvements reduced transmission losses around 700 kWh/year and diminished CO2 emissions around 20 kg/year, which implied a decrease of 1262 and 1277 SEK per year for each measure respectively. However, the profitability of these measures was difficult to attain because the required initial capitals are probably higher than the investments allowed, which are around 17371 and 17579 SEK for each measure respectively. Moreover, a study about installing photovoltaic solar cells was conducted and it resulted in a significant positive impact in the energy usage of the house. In particular, this improvement lead to a reduction of 2471 kWh per year, which equaled to an annual decrease of 6036 SEK. These annual savings implied an investment allowed of 58620 SEK. Furthermore, a decrease of 99 kg of CO2 emissions per year was obtained. In conclusion, this measure yielded substantial profitability, making it the most recommended option for future energy-saving improvements. Finally, changing in the occupant’s behavior by reducing the indoor temperature had a positive impact on the house without the need for an initial investment. Specifically, it decreased around 105 kWh per year