Abstract

A large percentage of existing housing was built without thermal and energy efficiency considerations, causing high energy consumption that users must assume to keep house in comfort conditions. In Chile, at least 75% of existing houses were built without thermal regulations. This situation mainly affects vulnerable families, who live under the line of "fuel poverty". The government has sought to improve this by retrofitting measures, but only involving a few performances that have implications on energy demands and thermal comfort. Besides, these performance are applied independently of each other, regardless of the relation between them and the resulting effects. This research aims to cover a knowledge gap of how different performance based act comprehensively in the housing energy-environmental retrofitting (HEER). From a Post Occupancy Evaluation (numerical calculations, energy simulation, monitoring and user perception) made in case studies, it was determined that three performances must be improved: Thermal Comfort, Energy Efficiency for Heating Demand and Indoor Air Quality. Different variables for each performance are proposed, whose relevance is analysed under a multifactorial study, showing that the relevant variables in the housing energy-environmental retrofitting are: thermal transmittance of walls, air infiltration rate in the envelope and using a ventilation system. But, this improvements should be considered in a holistically way to get better standards and under a performance based philosophy to put focus on the final goal and not in a particular strategy.