Zero carbon buildings refurbishment--A Hierarchical pathway

Buildings account for almost half of energy consumptions in European countries and energy demand in building continues to grow worldwide. Fossil fuels are finite reserves. Impacts of peak oil will be perceived soon or later in the next decades. The scale of the challenge in reducing fossil fuel dependency in the built environment is vast and will require a dramatic increase in skills and awareness amongst the construction professions. Building refurbishment towards zero carbon is established itself as one critical aspect to decouple from fossil fuels and tackle with future energy crisis. However, it is a very complex phenomenon cuts across disciplines. This paper categorises a range of technologies for building refurbishment in a sequential manner. A hierarchical process with embedded techniques (insulations, energy efficient equipment and micro-generation) is presented in this paper as a pathway towards zero-carbon building refurbishment.