Thermal Comfort and Energy Performance of Residential Buildings in Russia

Currently, around 50% of the Russian housing stock needs renovation. Although the annual energy consumption for residential buildings in Russia seems to be within the recommend good practice ranges, they may not provide a thermally comfortable environment for their occupants, due to the significantly lower heating set points compared to the UK. This paper investigates the current conditions and methods to improve energy performance and thermal comfort in residential buildings in Russia. Dynamic thermal simulations are conducted in IES(VE) to assess thermal comfort and energy performance in a multi-story residential case study building. CIBSE TM59 and PMV assessment methods were used to investigate the thermal comfort conditions during summer and winter, respectively. Different combination scenarios for heating setpoints, external shading strategies and refurbished strategies were considered to assess the effects of these strategies on energy and comfort in the building. The results reveal that energy consumption was significantly reduced by over 94% for the high-performing refurbishment strategies, while thermal comfort was marginally improved.