LUMES LUND UNIVERSITY MASTER'S PROGRAMME IN INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THE BULGARIAN RESIDENTIAL SECTOR Technical, Legislative, and Socio-Economic Issues Graduate: apt.44, 46 Kajmakchalan str Sofia, Bulgaria Tatiana Draganinska phone: +359 2 726145, +359 2 9588608 e-mail:
[email protected] Counselor: Dept. of Building Physics Lic. Eng. Elisabeth Kjellsson Lund University, P.O. Box 118 SE-221 00 Lund, SWEDEN phone: +46 414 70677, fax: +46 46 222 4535 e-mail:
[email protected] 22 November 2004 Lund, Sweden ABSTRACT Buildings are big energy consumers, and as such they contribute to the resource depletion and the global stock of CO2 emissions. This paper attempts to assess the environmental impact of the Bulgarian residential sector during the buildings’ operational phase. This is done by the means of the amount of energy consumption in the residential buildings and the origin of this energy. The analysis reveals that both the Energy and Building sectors in Bulgaria are ineffective. That is, the energy mix consists of conventional polluting sources and is the first track in the chain of non-sustainability in buildings, as it supplies energy generated by non-environmentally friendly sources. Furthermore along the chain, the buildings themselves have poor energy performance because of their old age and the loose thermal regulations. Therefore, technical and regulatory measures are suggested to deal with those shortcomings. They are derived from the best European practices and their applicability in Bulgaria is carefully examined. Appropriate for Bulgaria technical measures would include insulation of dwellings, metering, and some low-cost measures such as sealing the windows, double pane glazing, etc.