The investigation of energy efficiency measures in the traditional buildings in Oporto World Heritage Site

Background The improvement of energy efficiency in buildings is widely promoted as a measure to mitigate climate change through the reduction of CO2 emissions. Thermal regulations worldwide promote it, for both new and existing buildings. Among the existing stock, traditional and historic buildings pose the additional challenge of heritage conservation. Their energy efficiency upgrade raises the risk of provoking negative impacts on their significance. Aims and Methodology This research used an approach based on impact assessment methodologies, defining an inital baseline scenario for both heritage and energy, from which the appropriate improvement solutions were identified and assessed. The measures were dynamically simulated and the results for energy, CO2, cost and comfort compared with the initial scenario, and then being further assessed for their heritage impact to eventually determine the most feasible solutions. To test this method, ten case studies, representative of the identified typological variants, were selected among Oporto’s traditional buildings located in the World Heritage Site. Findings and Conclusions The fieldwork data revealed that the energy consumption of these dwellings was below the European average. Additionally, the households expressed that their home comfort sensation was overall positive. The simulations showed that the introduction of insulation and solar thermal panels were ineffective on these cases in terms of energy, cost and comfort. At the same time, these measures pose a great risk to the buildings heritage value. The most efficient solutions were obtained from behavioural changes and DHW retrofit. The study reinforced the idea that traditional buildings performed better than expected and can be retrofitted and updated at a low-cost and with passive solutions. The use of insulation and solar panels should be disregarded.

Subsector de gestão de energia - novos desafios

A actual crise social que afecta o país atingiu as PME de uma forma global, provocando uma redução drástica do volume dos seus negócios, em particular as empresas ligadas à gestão de energia, que constituem um exemplo ilustrativo de uma crise mais geral, dado que dependem muito da realização de obras de grande vulto, nomeadamente em edifícios públicos, como escolas, hospitais, universidades, ou outros organismos públicos e privados, as quais estão, de momento, paralisadas. O trabalho a desenvolver centrar-se-á no estudo de um conjunto de empresas ligadas a este sub-sector (players), com análise das atuais dificuldades, e procura de informação relevante sobre a estratégia empresarial com vista à diversificação de produtos para a sua instalação em novos segmentos de mercado ou avaliação de uma estratégia de inovação ou de internacionalização e qual o mercado a desenvolver.. Através deste estudo pretende-se: • Identificar as actuais estratégias empresariais, sobretudo como irão atuar as empresas no mercado nos próximos anos; • Analisar processos que proporcionem a diversificação do produto final, com garantia de sustentabilidade económica do modelo e ampla aceitação das entidades públicas e privadas; • Conhecer as intenções de internacionalização, e as razões de preferência por determinados mercados em detrimento de outros.