The perception of Swedish housing owner’s on the strategies to increase the rate of energy efficient refurbishment of multi-family buildings

Abstract

Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is crucial for reaching both EU and national climate and energy targets. The main objective of this study was to map challenges that Swedish housing owners perceive when making energy-efficiency refurbishments. A secondary objective was to compare how well these challenges relate to national strategies. The study applied a combined methods approach with audience response meters and in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews. The housing owners express the view that they have sufficient knowledge of national ambitions to improve the energy performance of buildings and welcome the new building regulations. Despite this supposed knowledge and the current economic situation with beneficial loans, the refurbishment rate still remains low. The housing owners explain that they are concerned about the 'performance gap' and request more accurate energy performance predictions. They are also waiting for proof that all sustainability goals can be reached in reality. Probably, too few projects fulfilling ambitions in all categories: economically, socially and energy-wise have been followed up and demonstrated nationally. The new national information centre on refurbishment of buildings may help to spread information about such projects, raise awareness and thus increase the refurbishment rate.

Case Study Analysis - Sweden. HTR Task Users TCP: Lund. 33pp.

“…In fact, the information-deficit model has been widely criticised in the literature because it fails to drive behaviour change (Blake, 2007;Owens & Driffill, 2008;Tanenbaum et al, 2013). For example, even if there is increased knowledge about energy use and profitable EE potentials, the renovation rate is still very low in the residential sector (Myhren et al, 2018). Thus, the strong assumption that increased level of knowledge will lead to behaviour change may not hold in reality, which stresses the need to complement informative instruments with other mechanisms (e.g.…”

“…Third, there are extensive information asymmetries or a lack of information about sustainable energy use among target audiences (for households see e.g. Myhren et al, 2018). In this context, ECAS aim to bridge the knowledge gap between experts and nonexperts by providing free, impartial information to target audiences.…”

Development of a Weight Factor Method for Sustainability Decisions in Building Renovation. Case Study Using Renobuild

“…Considering a multitude of sustainability criteria while undertaking a renovation project naturally adds to its complexity. Several critical decisions are taken throughout the process and certainly during the design stage [28]. Additionally, different actors involved in the renovation process, and specifically decision makers, have diverse priorities and preferences.…”

“…Additionally, different actors involved in the renovation process, and specifically decision makers, have diverse priorities and preferences. There is a notable lack of simplified evaluation and decision-making tools [28,29]. An optimal tool should reduce complexity and help the decision makers to carry out renovation projects according to a holistic and integrated design process which considers various aspects of sustainability.…”