Building Energy Performance Analysis after Changing Its Form of Use from an Office to a Residential Building

Przemysław Markiewicz-Zahorski, Joanna Rucińska, Małgorzata Fedorczak-Cisak and Michał Zielina
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Przemysław Markiewicz-Zahorski: Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, 24 Warszawska Street, 31-155 Kraków, Poland
Joanna Rucińska: Division of Air Conditioning and Heating, Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska 20, 00-653 Warsaw, Poland
Małgorzata Fedorczak-Cisak: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, 24 Warszawska Street, 31-155 Kraków, Poland
Michał Zielina: Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Energy, Cracow University of Technology, 24 Warszawska Street, 31-155 Kraków, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: Lowering energy consumption is one of the most important challenges of the modern world. Since the construction sector accounts for 40% of total energy consumption worldwide, the Parliament of the European Union has developed a Directive, according to which all newly designed and thermally upgraded buildings should meet the requirements of almost zero energy demand (nZEBs) from 1 January 2021. At the same time, in Poland, but also in many other countries in the world, there is a growing oversupply of office space in large cities with a simultaneous increase in demand for apartments, which is caused, among other things, by the increase in the share of remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, this is forcing owners to change the use of buildings from office to residential. This article analyses the possibilities of changing the function of an office building to a multi-family residential building. For both functional solutions, a comparative energy analysis was carried out, taking into account different work schedules and the requirements for new buildings with zero energy demand. The analyses have shown that changing the form of use of an office building to a multi-family building without significant financial and technical costs is possible. On the other hand, the reverse change of the form of use is much more difficult and, in many cases, practically impossible. Due to the fact that many offices are now multinational corporations, this issue is global.

Keywords: energy performance; nZEB; thermal comfort; building form of use change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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