Energy refurbishment of the housing stock is needed in order to reduce energy consumption and meet global climate goals. This is even more necessary for social housing built in Spain in the middle of the last century since its obsolete energy conditions lead to situations of indoor thermal discomfort and energy poverty. The present study carries out a life cycle assessment of the energy and economic performance of roofs after being retrofitted to become cool roofs for the promotion of social housing in Seville (Spain). Dynamic simulations are made in which the time dependent aging effect on the energy performance of the refurbished cool roofs is included for the whole lifespan. The influence of the time dependent aging effect on the results of the life cycle economic analysis is also assessed. A variety of scenarios are considered in order to account for the aging effect in the energy performance of the retrofitted cool roofs and its incidence while considering different energy prices and monetary discount rates on the life cycle assessment. This is made through a dynamic life cycle assessment in order to capture the impact of the aging dynamic behavior correctly. Results point out significant savings in the operational energy. However, important differences are found in the economic savings when the life cycle analysis is carried out since the source of energy and the efficiency of the equipment used for conditioning strongly impact the economic results.

This survey provides an updated review of the empirical literature on the regional effects of monetary policy in economic activity by means of undertaking a threefold perspective. First, the main methodological dimensions of this literature are examined while pinpointing those modelling or methodological traits that constitute a source of diverging estimates and thereby produce inconclusive evidence. Secondly, the estimates yielded by the literature are summarized by carrying out a crossstudy analysis of the results for each monetary union. By drawing on empirical regularities that are robust across studies, the conclusiveness of the results is assessed, while those monetary unions for which conclusive evidence is still lacking are also identified. Lastly, the sources of regional heterogeneity identified by these studies are reviewed in order to shed some light on the linkage between monetary policy and territorial heterogeneity. As a result of this threefold perspective, this survey delivers overall structured conclusions and updated policy-relevant lessons. Moreover, various research gaps and emerging topics in the literature are also identified.

Social housing built in the middle of the last century in Spain suffers from poor thermal insulation conditions that cause situations of discomfort and energy poverty. For this reason, the energetic refurbishment of the envelope of this social building stock is necessary to overcome these situations and reduce energy consumption aimed at achieving interior comfort for its occupants. The goal of this work is to optimize a constructive solution that combines cool roof techniques with the use of thermal insulation applied to the refurbishment of the roof of buildings belonging to a quarter of social housing in Seville, Spain. The optimization analysis is based on the computation of the energy performance of the roofs when the energy retrofitting measure is applied, considering a variety of combinations of solar reflective coatings and insulation layer thickness, performing a dynamic analysis that accounts for the aging effect of the cool coats on the monthly roof energy performance and on the economic balance for the whole life cycle (LC) span. Economic and energy optimization analysis show that a suitable combination of cool roof emissivity and insulation layer thickness produces significant savings in the operational energy and in the economic profitability of the proposed retrofitting measure: the optimum combination obtained provides for the entire life cycle timespan an energy savings of 5.71 GJ/m2 and a cost savings equivalent to the 63.1% of the total costs when compared to the non-refurbished roof. The application of a time-dependent pattern for the changes on time produced by the aging effect on the cool roof emissivity, and its effects on the optimization of the combination of cool roof and insulation layer, can be considered novel in literature, both from an energy and an economic point of view.

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