How energy efficient are buildings in Latvia?

Dr Phys. Staņislavs Gendelis, a senior researcher at the Institute of Numerical Modelling, has carried out a statistical analysis of buildings with issued energy performance certificates in Latvia for the past five years. The performed analysis was published in the journal Būvinženieris (in Latvian – Civil Engineer) in the February 2021 issue. The most interesting and important conclusions have been summarised in this article.

Since March 2016 energy performance certificates have to be registered in the Construction Information System, the data from this database is available to the public; this means that anybody can check the energy performance of a specific building. Once per month the Latvian Open Data Portal is updated with information on the energy performance certificates from the Constructions information System. Staņislavs Gendelis has processed the available energy performance certificate data and he has examined the influence of different parameters such as the dependence of energy efficiency on the total area of the building being heated and the type of the building.

The distribution of energy performance levels (2016-2020). Levels E and F predominate in Latvia.

A histogram of energy performance certificate number dependance on heating consumption. Mostly the heating consumption is between 110 and 150 kWh/m² per year.

Specific energy consumption depending on the total area of the building. There is a large dispertion, but a common trend can be seen – large buildings are typically more energy efficient.

Specific energy consumption depending on the area, three different types of buildings are differentiated. Despite the large distribution between data points, it can be seen that office buildings per average have slightly higher energy efficiency.

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