Europe’s Building Stock and Its Energy Demand: A Comparison Between Austria and Italy

Abstract

The building sector is responsible for approximately 40% of the European Union's total primary energy demand, which is mainly attributed to space heating, cooling and domestic hot water. In 2010, its value reached 1800 Mtoe/y, to which buildings contributed 720 Mtoe/y. While the Austrian and Italian building stocks are well investigated (e.g., classified by different building typologies, existing floor area, ownership etc.), there still is a lack of information concerning energy/demand values for space heating, cooling and domestic hot water per the various construction periods. In order to identify differences in energy demand, we first classified residential and service sector buildings in Austria and Italy and then attributed specific demand values in kWh/m 2 year. We further subdivided existing buildings per construction period: buildings (i) con