While browsing Cleantechnica I found the answer of a key question I have been having ever since writing my Master’s thesis. French houses are leaky ” thermal collanders “ as 20 million accommodations have to be weatherized.
Potential savings could be the equivalent of 200 TWh of electricity per annum, knowing that the total electricity consumption in France is of 473 TWh. I had been wondering if this was the case in other countries.
But given this brilliant article, French dwellings aren’t the only one to be vastly inefficient. as similar data are mentioned : old houses need 300 kWh per square meter per year.
The article then goes on explaining how modern houses consume half less and how passive housing can cut by a massive factor 20 the energy consumption of housing.
These figures are in line with my Master’s thesis findings where old houses need 375 kWh per year per square meter, houses from 1975 to 200 need only 200 kWh and houses built ever since need only 100 kWh.
This is why I have been tirelessly advocating weatherizing and insulating houses and buildings ever since. While laudable, French efforts by the successive Sarkozy and Hollande governments have fallen short.
As I noted last year in Cleantechies last year, according to a new study presented by the Renovate Europe Campaign, weatherizing European buildings in an important way could boost local GDP by up to 291 billion Euros ($370 billion) by 2017.
Furthermore, gross annual investments of €41 to €78 billion per year in the EU could bring ongoing annual returns of €104 to €175 billion.
I guess that makes weatherizing places a very profitable investment. Perhaps it’s time to invest money in there…