In historic buildings, measures such as thermal retrofitting are particularly difficult because they conflict with preserving historic integrity. This is a Europe wide problem: about 35% of the existing housing stock in the EU is more than 50 years old. The proportion of dwellings 100 years old and older are higher than 50% in some parts of Europe.

The European Union promotes a balanced approach between the need to stimulate growth on the one hand and the preservation of heritage dwellings on the other.

This DCU research collaboration uses a new spatial analysis technique to assess the application of different heat pump systems in an historic building in Poland.

The main conclusion is that a significant reduction of the energy demand of heritage buildings is possible, despite the severe technical limitations. The paper also shows that energy retrofit measures can lead to a reduction of heating costs of the building. The study’s recommendations contributed to the renovation of an actual building featured in the study underlining the viability of this process.