Economic Evaluation of Retrofitting Residential Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort

Climate change presents a once-in-a-generation challenge for modern societies today. There has been a robust discourse regarding the optimal methods to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving anthropomorphic climate change, and the built environment has been identified as a major lever for energy efficiency related emissions reductions (Beyond Zero Emissions 2013; IPCC 2014). In Australia, residential dwellings are a major driver of greenhouse gas intensive electricity demand. Improvements have been made to residential energy efficiency in new dwellings through the National Construction Code (NCC) and in older dwellings through individual energy retrofit measures (Ambrose 2013). However, energy efficiency improvements in older buildings have lagged behind those in new dwellings and deeper reductions in energy use are required across the entire building stock if we are to achieve the lower emissions required to mitigate the significant risks of climate change.