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Heating Energy Consumption and Environmental Implications Due to the Change in Daily Habits in Residential Buildings Derived from COVID-19 Crisis: The Case of Barcelona, Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Marta Monzón-Chavarrías

    (Department of Architecture, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Silvia Guillén-Lambea

    (University Center of Defense, University of Zaragoza, 50090 Zaragoza, Spain
    Thermal Engineering and Energy Systems Group (GITSE), Aragón Institute for Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Sergio García-Pérez

    (Department of Architecture, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Antonio Luis Montealegre-Gracia

    (GEOFOREST-IUCA Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain)

  • Jorge Sierra-Pérez

    (Department of Design and Manufacturing Engineering, EINA, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
    Water and Environmental Health Research Group, University of Zaragoza, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain)

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has changed daily habits and the time that people spend at home. It is expected that this change may have environmental implications because of buildings’ heating energy demand. This paper studies the energy and environmental implications, from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, due to these new daily habits in residential buildings at their current level of thermal insulation, and in different scenarios of thermal retrofit of their envelope. This study has a building-to-building approach by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for the residential housing stock in the case of Barcelona, Spain. The results show that a change in daily habits derived from the pandemic can increase the heating energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission in residential buildings by 182%. Retrofitting all buildings of Barcelona, according to conventional energy renovation instead of nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB), will produce between 2.25 × 10 7 and 2.57 × 10 7 tons of carbon dioxide. Retrofitting the building stock using energy recovery is the option with better energy and emission savings, but also is the option with higher payback time for buildings built until 2007. The methodology presented can be applied in any city with sufficient cadastral data, and is considered optimal in the European context, as it goes for calculating the heating energy consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Monzón-Chavarrías & Silvia Guillén-Lambea & Sergio García-Pérez & Antonio Luis Montealegre-Gracia & Jorge Sierra-Pérez, 2021. "Heating Energy Consumption and Environmental Implications Due to the Change in Daily Habits in Residential Buildings Derived from COVID-19 Crisis: The Case of Barcelona, Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:918-:d:482213
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Editorial, 2020. "Covid-19 and Climate Change," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 10(1), pages 5-6, January-J.
    2. Sierra-Pérez, Jorge & Rodríguez-Soria, Beatriz & Boschmonart-Rives, Jesús & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2018. "Integrated life cycle assessment and thermodynamic simulation of a public building’s envelope renovation: Conventional vs. Passivhaus proposal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1510-1521.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mar Alonso & Alberto Rubio & Teresa Escrig & Teresa Soto & Begoña Serrano-Lanzarote & Núria Matarredona-Desantes, 2021. "Identification of Measures to Strengthen Resilience in Homes on the Basis of Lockdown Experience during COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-37, May.
    2. Domenico Palladino & Silvia Di Turi & Iole Nardi, 2021. "Energy and Environmental Effects of Human Habits in Residential Buildings Due to COVID-19 Outbreak Scenarios in a Dwelling near Rome," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-24, November.

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