Renovation of Swedish Single-family Houses to Passive House Standard – Analyses of Energy Savings Potential

A third of Sweden's two million single-family houses were built in the period 1961-1980, and many of them are in need of renovation. These houses have a high energy use and are in technical terms fairly homogenous. This investigation evaluates the theoretical energy savings potential of renovating houses from this period. Four reference houses were selected and simulated using common renovation measures. The results indicate that most of the existing single-family housing stock will likely not be able to attain the passive house standard after renovation and using today's technology. This is explained by the fact that some house characteristics impose a limiting factor on the energy renovation. Such examples are the shape, foundation and composition of the building envelope. Nevertheless, it is still possible to drastically reduce the final energy use by approximately 65-75%.