Energy retrofit of an existing affordable building envelope in Spain, case study

In the last few years, the European Union has been working on how to achieve a significant reduction in the energy consumption of existing buildings. Many buildings in developed countries do not achieve the minimum energy required for a comfortable indoor environment. A cold home is an economic problem for low income tenants of affordable residential building in developed countries. And it can get worse if the energy sector keeps raising prices which in turn increases the risk of energy poverty for these tenants. The present research describes the real case of a building envelope energy retrofit undertaken on an existing affordable multifamily building in Montcada i Reixac, Barcelona. With economic support from the Catalan Government together with the local Building Department, the Building Laboratory at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya was able to carry out the energy retrofit of the main facades and roof of the building. In addition, the Construction Technology Center iMat, together with the Building Department of this municipality, conducted the monitoring of the building before and after the energy retrofit effort. The present study summarizes all the conducted work.