Impact of lifestyle on the energy demand of a single family house

The building sector is one of the highest energy consumers in Austria. The potential to save energy in existing buildings is very high. Current Austrian policy incentives encourage home owners to renovate buildings to meet the European requirements, reduce energy consumption, and reduce CO₂ emissions. Nevertheless, there are often discrepancies between the measured and calculated energy consumption results despite efforts to take parameters into account such as the exact geometry and thermal properties of the building, energy demand for hot water, heating, cooling, ventilation systems, and lighting in the planning phase for selecting the best reconstruction option. To find the answer to this problem, many buildings are carefully investigated with the help of measurements, interviews, and simulations. This paper presents the analysis and results of the investigation of the impact of lifestyle on the energy demand of a single family house. The impact on energy performance of the most important parameters was observed by systematically changing parameters such as changing from a decentralized to a centralized heating system, considering various technologies and fuels for producing electricity and heat, use of renewable energy sources. Different occupant behaviours were changed systematically. The effects of these measures are analysed with respect to primary energy use, CO₂ emissions and energy costs. The results of these investigations show that the lifestyle and occupants’ living standard is mainly responsible for the differences between the calculated and measured energy consumption.