Energy Retrofit Potential in the Public Housing Stock: the case of Catania

This paper focuses on the energy performance of a series of public housing buildings constructed between the 1950s and the 1990s with reinforced concrete structures, very common in those decades. The buildings are located in Catania, a large city in Southern Italy with around 5,000 public housing apartments. Apart from providing a picture of the current energy quality of public housing in Italy, the study also investigates the energy saving potential of innovative energy retrofit solutions with prefabricated insulated wooden panels, under development in the H2020 project “e-SAFE”, coordinated by the University of Catania. According to this investigation, they allow for primary energy savings above 85% for space heating, and between 75% and 80% including cooling and Domestic Hot Water. However, not all e-SAFE solutions are suitable for every building: the investigation suggests they can be applied to around 37% of the public housing stock, which would guarantee around 30% of total primary energy savings.