Modeling methodology of the heating energy consumption and the potential reductions due to thermal improvements of staggered block buildings

•Modeling methodology of the residential buildings heating energy consumption is presented.•Methodology is performed on staggered block buildings constructed between 1981 and 1990.•Thermal improvements of external walls and windows are investigated.•Heating energy consumption reductions are calculated on the city level. Understanding of the buildings energy performance at the city level is necessary in order to form a city energy planning policy and make a strategic decision on which buildings should be thermally improved. Energy modeling of the building sector is methodology that estimates energy consumption in buildings and simulates the effects of energy efficiency improvements of building envelopes and systems. In this paper engineering bottom-up method was used for modeling the heating energy consumption of a multi-family residential building sector built before 2012 in the city of Kragujevac in Serbia. The first part of methodology presents the criteria based on which a multi-family residential building sector of the city was described and building types were defined. The second part of methodology investigates the selection of the real buildings, their modeling and heating energy consumption simulation. The modeling method was performed on staggered block buildings constructed between 1981 and 1990, and estimated heating energy consumption was compared to measured consumption. After the simulation of different thickness of polystyrene thermal insulation additions to external walls and simulation of the new windows installation, the reductions of the total annual heating energy consumption were obtained.