Improvement of thermal insulation of the building envelope
Information
Good insulation of exterior walls, floors, ceilings/roofs, windows, and exterior doors can reduce your new building’s energy demand (both cooling and heating) by some 35 %.
Thermal insulation can also help you reduce CO2 emissions by more than a third, and improve the thermal comfort and indoor air quality within the building. It also helps owners meet building codes and standards as they become ever-more strict.
Today, the so-called 'passive house standard' is seen as a benchmark of excellence in insulation. It sets the energy demand for heating of commercial buildings at 15 kWh/m² per year for new buildings and 25 kWh/m² for older buildings.
Although the investment costs for insulating measures are generally high, the payback period is quite fast (6-15 years), depending on the climate. Technologies to insulate both new and existing buildings are readily available on the market.
You can save money on retrofitting your existing building if you combine it with other planned refurbishments (e.g. renewal of plastering and painting). And further savings are possible by combining thermal insulation with more efficient heating and cooling systems.