Energy efficiency in the Romanian residential building stock: A literature review

The building sector in Romania is dominated by residential buildings that are old and have poor thermal performance. As a member of the European Union, Romania has to reach the objectives imposed by the Directive 2009/28/EC and to fulfill the requirements of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) by year 2020. The implementation of these concepts in Romania consists into thermal rehabilitation of the existing buildings, applying the latest thermal performance characteristics in new buildings and establishing the certificate of energy performance. The following paper presents the literature review of the state of building energy performance in Romania. The purpose of the literature review analysis is to provide a snapshot on the existing building energy efficiency and future perspectives on the implementation of high performance buildings in Romania. The implementation of concepts such as the Passive House (PH), nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) and Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) are discussed in order to help the decision makers to achieve the 2020 objectives. The results of the reviewed publications and case studies are classified under three categories: policy and regulations, technology and feasibility. Finally a holistic perspective on the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs) of energy efficiency in Romania's residential building sector is presented.