Energy requirements for Norwegian commercial buildings : an assessment of the major social costs and benefits associated with stricter energy requirements in the technical building regulation
Master thesis
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http://hdl.handle.net/11250/218594Utgivelsesdato
2014Metadata
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- Master Thesis [4490]
Sammendrag
The focus of this thesis is the energy requirements in the Norwegian technical Building
Regulation. In 2015, these energy requirements are expected to be tightened. The purpose of
this thesis is to evaluate whether this planned tightening of the energy requirements is likely
to be positive for the society as a whole. This will be the case if the increased social benefits
associated with the stricter energy requirements exceed the increased social costs related to
these requirements. In order to evaluate whether this will be the case, a cost-benefit analysis
was conducted. In this cost-benefit analysis, some of the major costs and benefits associated
with the tightening of the energy requirements were assessed. The energy requirements in
TEK10 represented the current requirements, and the energy requirements in the Passive
House Standard represented the stricter energy requirements. Hence, the costs and benefits
associated with a building that meets the energy requirements in TEK10 and a building with
the Passive House Standard were estimated and compared. This was done for four different
building types; a sports building, a kindergarten, a school building, and an office building. In
order to evaluate whether the tightening of the energy requirements is likely to be positive for
the society as a whole, the net social benefits were calculated for each building type. These
net social benefits were then discounted in order to find the net present value. The net present
value turned out to be positive for all building types. It is therefore expected that the increased
benefits associated with stricter energy requirements will exceed the increased costs. Hence,
the tightening of the energy requirements is expected to be positive for the society as a whole.
A tightening of the energy requirements in the Technical Building Regulation can therefore
be recommended.