Energy and economic efficiency analysis of the use of cold roofs for social housing retrofitting in Southern Spain

Abstract

Energy retrofitting of the housing stock is needed in order to reduce the consumption of the energy used to achieve comfort conditions and, this way, meet the objectives aimed at reducing the impact of energy consumption on climate change. In particular, the social housing stock built in Spain in the middle of the last century have poor conditions in terms of energy efficiency and its obsolete energy conditions make some type of retrofitting necessary in order to avoid indoor thermal discomfort and energy poverty situations. This study focuses on perform an energy and economic analysis, throughout the life cycle, of the use of cool roofs to retrofit the roofs of buildings belonging to the social park. The analysis is carried out on three cities, Seville, Malaga and Jaen, in the region of Andalusia, Southern Spain, representative of a wide range of the climatic conditions of this region. The findings of this work show noticeable energy and economic costs savings, which endorse the efficiency of the use of cold roofs to retrofit the roofs customary in social housing built in the central decades of the last century under the analyzed climatic framework.