Energy mapping of existing building stock in Sweden – Analysis of data from Energy Performance Certificates

This study contributes to defining the current energy consumption baseline for buildings in Sweden. The data used for the analysis are extracted from the database of the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning and consists of 186,021 measured energy performance certificates issued for commercial buildings (355Mm2), collected during 2007–2015. The results from this study for certain building types, construction periods, climate zones and energy use is presented. Building codes have influence of the buildings energy performance. When new building codes have been adopted and energy performance requirement been stricter the measured energy consumption have been lowered compared to buildings built earlier. New buildings have nevertheless often higher energy consumption than stipulated by the building code. Climate zone have less impact on energy consumption than type of building. Building units in the warmer climate zones generally have slightly lower energy consumption than those in colder zones. This implies that the buildings are well adapted to the climates at hand. The results may help public authorities to plan future business strategies and energy policies. The Swedish Energy Performance Certificates are quite reliable because they are based on energy bills and not on theoretical calculations.