Application of sunspaces in fostering energy efficiency and economical viability of residential buildings in Serbia

Residential building sector in Serbia has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Large scale projects have given way to individual, private initiative resulting in smaller interventions rarely exceeding one lot. For this reason architectural concepts, building types, scopes and construction technology have been marginalized and fallen under the influence of market mechanisms and stringent local planning procedures. New regulations on energy efficiency have risen the standards for thermal insulation therefore increasing the thickness of building enclosure. This actually means that construction costs are increased and net built area, therefore expected profit, reduced. In order to provide the viable ground for both implementation of new regulations and economic benefits for investors, authors of energy efficiency regulations in Serbia have noted a whole set of solar systems, among which sunspaces that would not count as a part of gross area, provided that they contribute to the increase of energy performance of the building. This paper describes the case of a typical residential new construction in Belgrade that has applied the prescribed solutions and became the first building that has obtained the building permit by applying a sunspace as an efficient strategy for energy saving. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.