Energy Refurbishment of Family Houses in Serbia in Line with the Principles of Circular Economy

Saja Kosanović, Mirjana Miletić and Ljubo Marković
Additional contact information
Saja Kosanović: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kneza Miloša Street 7, 38220 Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia
Mirjana Miletić: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kneza Miloša Street 7, 38220 Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia
Ljubo Marković: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica, Kneza Miloša Street 7, 38220 Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: To achieve material efficiency, the ongoing initiative to improve thermal properties of family houses in the Republic of Serbia should include harmonization with internationally established and nationally adjusted principles of circular economy. The overall aim of this study was to propose a methodology for optimal decision making between alternative materials and components for energy refurbishment of façades in existing family houses. Together with developed criteria, and their belonging indicators, the methodology was tested on selected case study houses located in the central zone of the city of Belgrade. Using the VIKOR method, five suggested scenarios and three sub-scenarios for façade thermal upgrades were assessed against five determined types of criteria: Economic Cost, Function, Circularity Features, Appearance, and Innovativeness. Obtained results—ranking lists of proposed scenarios—indicate that the optimal solution for energy refurbishment of façades in existing houses could include polyurethane insulation material in combination with the wooden window frames and low-E insulation glass. In future research, it will be necessary to introduce an additional assessment criterion related to the ecological quality of proposed scenarios, as the study revealed that a gap between circularity-related quality, and ecological sustainability, of building materials could be significant.

Keywords: family houses; Serbia; energy efficiency; circularity principles; building materials and components; multi-criteria assessment; optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5463/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5463/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5463-:d:554003

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().