Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 20832089

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Energy and Buildings

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The impact of thermal bridges on the energy demand of buildings with double brick wall constructions
T.G. Theodosiou a,*, A.M. Papadopoulos b,1
a b

Department of Engineering and Management of Energy Resources, University of Western Macedonia, GR-50100 Kozani, Greece Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history: Received 11 April 2007 Received in revised form 7 April 2008 Accepted 2 June 2008 Keywords: Thermal bridges Insulation Double brick walls Thermal facade

The implementation of the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) is a milestone towards the improvement of energy efciency in the building sector. However, even in cases where impressive measures can be implemented in the densely built urban environment, the less glamorous measure of buildings envelope thermal insulation remains a prerequisite towards the improvement of the buildings energy efciency. Despite the insulation requirements specied by national regulations, thermal bridges in the buildings envelope remain a weak spot in the constructions. Moreover, in many countries construction practices tend to implement only partially the insulation measures foreseen by regulations. As a result, thermal losses are in practice greater than those predicted during the design stage. This paper presents a study on representative wall thermal insulation congurations used in Greek buildings, in order to investigate the impact of the thermal bridges on the energy consumption. The double wall construction, used widely in Greece and not only there, is rather susceptible to the occurrence of thermal bridges, in contrast to a typical thermal insulating fac ade, like the one applied in Central Europe. The analysis of the thermal bridges impact will in that sense also highlight the potential for energy renovation measures in older buildings. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The European Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) [1] is probably the most important single action towards the improvement of energy efciency in the building sector throughout Europe since the 1970s when, in the aftermath of the energy crisis, most national building regulations introduced mandatory thermal insulation requirements. The implementation of the Directive 2002/91/EC in the form of national laws by each member state, gradually leads to the need to adopt advanced standards, techniques and technologies while designing and constructing new buildings, but also in applying energy renovation measures in existing ones, in order to comply with the updated energy efciency requirements. The features of the urban built environment in many European countries impose limitations, or at least restrictions, on implementing other advanced renovation measures like the use of passive or active

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2461 056695; fax: +30 2461 056601. E-mail addresses: tgt@uowm.gr (T.G. Theodosiou), agis@eng.auth.gr (A.M. Papadopoulos). 1 Tel.: +30 2310 996015; fax: +30 2310 996012. 0378-7788/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2008.06.006

solar systems, passive cooling techniques, etc. This is mostly due to factors like the overshadowing of buildings in winter, the unfavourable orientation and the architectural typology of buildings fac ades [2]. Still, even in cases where such measures can be implemented, it is still rather impossible to achieve a satisfactory degree of energy efciency, as long as the buildings present high thermal losses trough their external envelope. In that sense, the less glamorous but still most effective measures, such as the buildings envelope thermal insulation and the heating systems upgrading remain prerequisites for a realistic approach towards the improvement of the buildings energy efciency. Contemporary national regulations throughout the world specify requirements for the insulation of the various buildings elements, according to specic thermophysical properties and the calculation procedures adopted, based on various standards, varying from simple one-dimensional steady state considerations to more sophisticated two-dimensional dynamic ones, which inevitably lead to executing building simulation procedures. Still, the problem of thermal bridges, appearing for example at the junction between two separately insulated elements, or between a vertical and a horizontal element, is not always dealt with properly. This leads to underestimated thermal losses during the design process, the insulation study or the various calculation

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methods in general, and, consequently, to higher (in comparison to the estimates) energy requirements in practice. Moreover, in many countries actual construction practices tend to only partially implement the insulation foreseen by regulations, because of construction difculties, the conicting stability issues of the various building elements, the lack of properly trained/qualied personnel and, nally, because of minimal or inefcient controls on behalf of the authorities. The aforementioned discrepancy between estimated and actual thermal losses appears despite the fact that both analytical and simulative methods enable the designing engineer to achieve a very good approximation of the thermal losses [3,4]. Nowadays, more than ever in the past, the need for convergence between the predicted and the actual buildings energy consumption has proven to be an essential factor in the design and construction processes. The energy performance certicate introduced by the EPBD, which will be mandatory for new constructions and for existing ones in order to be sold or rented, is going to affect the building sector in a variety of ways. The certication introduced, be it asset or rating-based, raises, from the earliest design stages already, the necessity for accurate prediction of thermal losses through the buildings envelope, if the actual consumption is expected to reasonably converge with the predicted one. Unfortunately, many European countries still base their thermal insulation requirements and legislations on simplied calculation methods that neglect or reduce the impact of thermal bridges. This, in many cases, may lead to signicant deviation between predicted and actual thermal losses through the buildings envelope, depending on the thermal insulation solution opted for. Consequently, the design process is likely to provide an underestimation of the actual energy demand compared to the values to be later on identied and reported in an energy audit, carried out in the frame of EPBD. The study discussed in the present paper looks into the typical, representative buildings thermal insulation congurations used in wall structures in Greece. In particular, this study examines how and to what extent the inclusion of the thermal bridges effects, as

they occur in vertical building elements, affects the calculations during the design process and also the actual energy efciency of a building, as this can be measured during an energy audit. The main reason for focusing on vertical building elements is that the double wall construction, which is used in Greece but also in other Mediterranean countries, is rather susceptible to allowing thermal bridges, in contrast to a typical thermal insulating fac ade, like the one applied in Central and Western Europe. At the same time, the analysis of the thermal bridges impact aims to shed light on the potential for energy renovation measures to be applied in older buildings. Last but not least, the efciency of each thermal insulation conguration is examined with respect both to its economic feasibility and to its environmental impact. 2. Methodology In order to conduct this study, a typical three-storey apartment building with an open ground-oor space (pilotis), normally used as a parking lot, and a at roof was chosen as a representative urban residential building type. Each storey consists of two identical apartments with a total area of 200 m2 (Fig. 1). All apartments are equipped with autonomous heating and cooling systems. The building is located in the city of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. The main climatic data for this area, which are summarised in Table 1, are similar to those prevailing in Southern France, Northern Italy and the Mediterranean coastal area of Spain. During the heating period, each apartments indoor temperature is thermostatically kept to 21 8C, with a night set back temperature of 19 8C (00:0008:00). During the cooling period each apartments indoor temperature is thermostatically kept to 24 8C at day-time (08:0024:00), whilst natural ventilation is opted for at night, or when the ambient temperature drops below 24 8C. The latter policy seems to be the most reasonable and realistic one for the case of partially air-conditioned buildings [5]. All simulative calculations were carried out using the TRNSYS 16 simulation software, which has an established reliability for calculating two-dimensional heat uxes through building ele-

Fig. 1. Plan view of the building.

T.G. Theodosiou, A.M. Papadopoulos / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 20832089 Table 1 Climatic data for Thessaloniki Month Mean daily ambient temperature (8C) Minimum January February March April May June July August September October November December Total 2 1 4 8 14 20 22 22 17 9 4 1 Mean 5 7 10 14 20 24 27 26 22 16 11 7 Maximum 10 13 16 20 25 28 30 30 26 22 17 14 75 72 72 68 64 57 53 55 62 69 77 77 45 54 87 125 159 172 175 159 120 78 48 37 1259 367 319 263 143 35 0 0 0 0 76 208 330 1741 Mean relative humidity (%) Total horizontal radiation (kWh/m2)

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Heating degree days (18 8C)

ments and also of HVAC systems [6,7]. These calculations are in accordance with the relevant standards concerning the thermal bridge heat ows [810]. This approach can therefore highlight the discrepancy between the typical analysis method and the 2D analysis for thermal bridging. The complexity of various envelope details further exacerbates the inaccuracy of using simple methods and requires 3D analysis to truly account for all the heat ow paths [11,12]. Four different scenarios are examined (Fig. 2). The rst three scenarios represent typical wall constructions in Greek buildings. The forth scenario (D) represents, as far as the Greek context is concerned, a novel approach, applied after 2004, which may well constitute the main renovation strategy in order to apply additional thermal insulation to existing buildings envelopes. In detail, scenario A represents a large proportion of the Greek building stock constructed during the 1980s, after the introduction of the Thermal Insulation Regulation (TIR) in 1979. Although thermal insulation of all external envelope elements is, according to TIR, mandatory, the application of thermal insulation during this period has proven to be problematic, mainly because of the lacking construction experience and the absence of adequate and appropriate insulation materials in the Greek market. The outlined

situation led to only a partial application of insulation, namely in the cavity between the two brick walls, leaving, as a rule, the loadbearing structure, consisting of armed concrete elements, unprotected. Whilst the insulation materials dominating the market in the 1980s were expanded polystyrene and, initially, glass wool, in the mid-1990s, when armed concrete elements were insulated more systematically, extruded polystyrene became very popular and glass wool almost disappeared from the market, and was substituted by expanded polystyrene. Since 2003, when the production of stone wool began in Greece, this inorganic material is increasingly becoming popular. The aforementioned developments are reected in the following gures for the year 2006, whereby extruded polystyrene accounted for 35%, expanded polystyrene for 45% and stone wool for 15% of the market, with the last one rising and largely replacing expanded polystyrene mainly in the double brick masonry construction. The remaining 5% of the market is covered by other materials and insulating bricks [13]. In addition to these elements, double-glazed windows and thermal insulation of the at roof and pilotis have been found to be applied in most cases during the construction process or afterwards as a refurbishment action. Unfortunately, even nowadays, buildings of similar, poor quality of thermal protection are still

Fig. 2. Insulation conguration among the examined scenarios.

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Table 2 Average U-value for a 1-m-long external wall construction for both the examined methodologies Scenario Average U-value for a 1-m-long wall construction (W/m2 K) Excluding thermal bridge effect A B C D 0.64 0.56 0.49 0.52 Including thermal bridge effect (in the place of overhangs) 3.64 3.56 3.49 1.07 Including thermal bridge effect (without obstruction by overhangs) 3.91 3.83 3.77 0.52

constructed. In many cases, parts of the load-bearing structure are still left un-insulated and so result in excessive thermal losses during the winter [14]. As far as the applied thicknesses are concerned, and despite the fact that in the coldest climatic zone of Greece a minimum of 5 cm of insulation thickness is required (scenario C), in practice thinner insulation layers (3 cm or thinner) are used on concrete elements during the construction, mostly because of stability reasons of masonry wall and in order to simplify the construction demands. This practice is represented by scenario B, whilst external envelope insulation, by means of the thermal insulating fac ade is represented by scenario D. This insulation approach has the advantage of signicantly reducing the effect of thermal bridges and is applicable to both new and existing buildings when energy renovation works take place. With the exception of scenario A, where thermal insulation is obviously insufcient, simulation of the other cases was performed twice, considering and not considering the effects of thermal bridges. This was done, because the thermal insulation regulation, still valid in Greece, does not address the thermal bridges effect. Consequently, it is of interest to estimate the approximation error resulting from this oversimplication, as well as the extent to which the existing methodology leads to underestimating the actual thermal losses through the buildings envelope. The mean Uvalue for a 1-m-long wall construction in every scenario for both methodologies examined is shown in Table 2. It is obvious that ignoring the thermal bridges effect has a great impact on most of the examined wall constructions, with the exception of scenario D, whereas in the latter case D, where the fac ade is not interrupted by an overhang, the U-value is the same for both methodologies. For all the examined scenarios double-glazed insulated windows were assumed to be the case of all openings of the buildings envelope. This assumption is in accordance with most Greek buildings reality, since even older buildings have been retrotted with this type of windows. In addition, insulation of both the at roof and the pilotis is regarded as identical in every scenario, according to the requirements of the prevailing regulation [15].

3. Results The results discussed focus on both the heating and cooling load requirements and on the corresponding power demand for each storey of the building, as well as for the entire building. 3.1. Heating load The specic heating load requirements for each examined scenario are shown in Fig. 3. It becomes obvious that in every case the intermediate oor apartments present the smaller heating requirements. The rst and the last oor of the building, which have more exposed surfaces to the ambience (oor of the rst storey to the pilotis and the last oor to the at roof) suffer from higher thermal losses and consequently feature a higher heating consumption than the intermediate ones. Moreover, the rst storey is in a more disadvantageous position, since, on the one hand, it does not receive solar irradiation and, on the other hand, its thermal transmittance is higher than that of the last storey, because of the more demanding U-value requirements for the at roof foreseen by the regulations. Due to the thermostatic control of the apartments internal air temperature, there are no signicant vertical heat uxes among them, despite the lack of horizontal insulation in the intermediate oors. The absence of thermal protection on the load-bearing elements on scenario A, results in high heating requirements (153 W/m2 and 131 W/m2 for the cases of including or neglecting thermal bridge calculations, respectively) especially in the lower storey where the insulation is restricted to the masonry walls and is obviously inadequate, even for the relatively mild Greek climate. The more effective approach of the thermal protection of the entire envelope (scenario B) even when the requirements of the thermal insulation regulations in terms of thickness are not fully adopted is obviously an important step towards reducing heating energy requirements. This is true even in the case where the thermal bridge effect is included in the calculations. Still, this reduced/ restricted insulation (scenario B), which is the case for the

Fig. 3. Specic annual heating load requirements for each examined scenario.

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majority of the existing buildings, leads to an increase of actual heating consumption by almost 15% compared to a full adoption of the insulation requirements, as represented by scenario C (109 kWh/m2 year instead of 92 kWh/m2 year when including thermal bridge effects and 87 kWh/m2 year instead of 71 kWh/ m2 year when ignoring thermal bridge effects). The results of the partially adopted thermal insulation case, combined with the fact that thermal bridges are not included in the insulation calculation procedure, clearly indicate that the actual thermal losses are 35% higher more than the estimated ones, according to the existing requirements (109 kWh/m2 year compared to 71 kWh/m2 year in scenarios B and C, respectively). Considering the fact that, even nowadays, this deviation applies to the majority of the newly constructed buildings in Greece, it becomes obvious that currently applied thermal insulation measures are rather inadequate and fail to contribute, to the expected extent, to energy conservation in buildings. When it comes to the reduction of thermal losses, external insulation as represented by scenario D is approximately identical with the one in the previous case (scenario C). The slightly higher heating requirements in scenario D are due to the higher thermal transmittance of the masonry wall elements. According to a more accurate calculation scheme, which includes the 2D thermal bridge effect, this conguration proves to be the most efcient one, as external insulation enables the reduction of thermal bridges located at the junction between different structural elements. Given that the shape of Greek buildings leads to a large number of such junctions, due to the presence of balconies and overhangs, this conguration can be efciently adopted in such construction practices. This last remark shows that the calculation methods currently used in Greece lead to misleading results, since a highly effective insulation conguration, as this of external insulation, is considered to be less efcient than cavity insulation. The deviation between the two calculation methods highly depends on the buildings insulation efciency, as it is shown in Fig. 4. Thermally better protected buildings show a wider deviation between the two approaches, since thermal bridges losses account for a larger proportion of the total conductive thermal losses. In that sense, the existing calculation methodology becomes less accurate, the better insulated a building is. In the case of scenario C, the underestimation of the heating requirements is signicant, reaching approximately 30%, whilst in the case of the poorly insulated building of scenario A the error is not exceeding 16% approximately. It is worth mentioning that these types of calculation errors are not limited to simple calculation methods but can also appear in advanced calculation methods, like FEM or nodal based energy

simulations, when thermal bridge effects are not included in the calculation model. In the process of an energy audit, this would mean that more efcient buildings will prove to have bigger deviation between estimated and actual heating consumption values. Obviously, the current regulations and their effects greatly contradict the target of designing and constructing more energy efcient buildings, since the more efcient the building is, the more misleading and erroneous the results become. Amongst all the insulation congurations examined, the case of external insulation (scenario D) results in the minimum deviation (5.5%), due to the limited length of thermal bridges. In this case, the decision whether to include or not the thermal bridge losses in the calculation method becomes less important. With the exception of the external insulation conguration, whereby the majority of thermal bridges are located in the pilotis ceiling, the calculation error is more evident in the case of the intermediate storey, in which thermal losses occur only through the external envelope. Apparently, in the case of multi-storey buildings, or of buildings with a high ratio of vertical to horizontal external surfaces in general, the deviation shown in Fig. 4 is expected to be of greater importance. The maximum heating power the heating system has to provide is another important factor affected by the insulation conguration. In partially insulated buildings, the need for maintaining the air temperature at 21 8C, especially in the early morning or late at night, results in an increased rating of the heating system, when compared to an adequately insulated building (this can be seen in Fig. 5). In the case where thermal bridges are ignored, the required heating power is similar among all the adequately insulated building scenarios. This holds not true in the case of the more accurate approach, i.e. the one including the calculation of thermal bridge effects, where external insulation conguration leads to a decrease in required heating power by up to 21% compared to the most common type of insulation conguration presented by scenario B (26.5 kW in scenario D compared to 33.4 kW in scenario B). 3.2. Cooling load In the case of cooling load requirements differences among the examined scenarios appear to be less signicant (see Fig. 6). The main reason being that during the cooling season heat ows, caused by conduction through the building envelope, contribute to a lesser extent to the buildings energy balance and have, therefore, a smaller effect on the cooling load demands. In almost every case it is the buildings last storey which presents the higher energy demands, because the at roof accepts high values of solar irradiation during summer. Despite the small differences, external insulation still provides an efcient solution

Fig. 4. Deviation of calculated heating load demand with and without the inclusion of thermal bridge effects.

Fig. 5. Maximum heating power requirement during the heating season.

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T.G. Theodosiou, A.M. Papadopoulos / Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 20832089 Table 3 Annual consumption for each type of fuel Fuel type Annual consumption for each scenario A Heating Fuel oil (kg) Natural gas (m3) Cooling Electricity (kWh) B C D

9130 7432

6513 5302

5514 4489

4515 3676

7362

7307

7435

6684

Fig. 6. Specic annual cooling load requirements for each examined scenario.

in terms of energy conservation, because of the decreased heat ows through the opaque elements of the buildings envelope. On the whole, considering the seasonal cooling demand, it is of limited importance whether to include or not the thermal bridge effect in the calculation method. In contrast to the case of the annual cooling demand, the thermal insulation effect on the required cooling power of the cooling system is more evident (Fig. 7). A comparison of scenarios A and D indicates that the difference varies between 21% (15.5 19.6 kW) and 16% (15.218.2 kW), depending on whether the thermal bridge effects are included or not. 4. Energy cost and carbon dioxide emissions The primary energy consumption for each examined scenario was calculated for the cases of two different heating systems, an oil-red and a gas-red boiler distributing the heat to hydronic radiators. The former is the traditional heating system installed in the majority of current building stock and the latter is a rather new option introduced in the late 1990s in many Greek cities, with a rapid retrotting taking place since 2003. The nominal efciency of

the boiler is 85% and 90% for each fuel type, respectively. When it comes to cooling, an air to air heat pump, with an average seasonal coefcient of performance (COP) equal to 2.7, is typical for Greek climatic conditions. On the basis of these assumptions, the annual consumption for each type of fuel is presented in Table 3. For the calculation of the annual heating and cooling costs, data for the year 2006 were considered with respect to fuel prices and the national energy mixture as presented in Table 4 [16]. The results are presented in Table 5. All values reect energy consumption resulting from thermal losses calculations including thermal bridge effects, since this was proven to be a more accurate approach. The total annual carbon dioxide emissions for the apartments heating and cooling are presented in Fig. 8. The most representative case among the current building stock-red of scenario B is compared to an oil-red boiler, which is the typical heating equipment over the last decades and is therefore considered to be the reference case. In the cases of a buildings construction or renovation, the combination of external insulation and a state of the art gas-red boiler would result in an almost 50% annual running cost reduction, compared to the most common combination of cavity insulation with oil-red boiler (22294508s, respectively). This is mainly due to the heating consumption reduction, since the cooling demands are not signicantly affected by the thermal insulation conguration. The environmental impact of this optimum combination is also signicant since an approximately
Table 4 Fuel and electricity tariffs and emission factors Energy source Natural gas Fuel oil Electricity Tariffs 0.0456 s/kWh 0.600 s/lt 0.08211 s/kWh Emission factor (kg/kWh) 0.181 0.247 0.368

Table 5 Total annual running costs for heating and cooling Fuel type Annual running cost for each scenario (s/ year) A Heating Fuel oil Natural gas Cooling Electricity Total Fuel-red boiler and heat pump Gas-red boiler and heat pump Fig. 7. Maximum cooling power demand during the cooling season for the entire building and for each storey. B C D

5478 3398

3908 2424

3309 2052

2709 1680

604

600

610

549

6083 4003

4508 3024

3919 2663

3258 2229

The scenarios presented here were calculated by taking into account the thermal bridge effects.

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Thus, there is an obvious contradiction between the target of designing more energy efcient buildings and the current legislative framework, which needs to be addressed and redeveloped and which was still debated in April 2008. Apart from the improved heating and cooling demands of buildings, there are two further benets to be considered, namely the not negligible environmental impact and the reduction of the buildings running costs. Such aspects should not be overlooked when revising the existing building codes.

References
Fig. 8. Annual carbon dioxide emissions and percentage CO2 reduction for each fuel type and for each insulation conguration scenario. Scenario B with oil-red boiler is the reference case. [1] European Commission, Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16th December 2002 on the energy performance of buildings, OJEC, L1/65, 04/01/2003. [2] T. Theodosiou, N. Chrisomallidou, Shading and solar availability in the urban Environment, in: Proceedings of PLEA2005The 22nd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Beirut, Lebanon, November 1316, 2005. [3] A.B. Larbi, Statistical modelling of heat transfer for thermal bridges of buildings, Energy and Buildings 37 (2005) 945951. que , F. Ollivier, J.J. Roux, Effect of 2D modelling of thermal bridges on the [4] F. De energy performance of buildings: numerical application on the Matisse apartment, Energy and Buildings 33 (2001) 583587. [5] V. Geros, M. Santamouris, S. Karatasou, A. Tsangrassoulis, N. Papanikolaou, On the cooling potential of night ventilation techniques in the urban environment, Energy and Buildings 37 (2005) 243257. [6] J. Neymark, R. Judkoff, G. Knabe, H.-T. Le, M. Durig, A. Glass, G. Zweifel, Applying the building energy simulation test (BESTEST) diagnostic method to verication of space conditioning equipment models used in whole-building energy simulation programs, Energy and Buildings 34 (2002) p.917931. [7] TRNSYS, A Transient System Simulation Program, Solar Energy Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 2006. [8] EN ISO 10211-1, Thermal Bridges in Building Construction: Heat Flows and Surface Temperatures. Part 1. General Calculation Methods, 1995. [9] EN ISO 10211-2, Thermal Bridges in Building Construction: Heat Flows and Surface Temperatures. Part 2. Linear Thermal Bridges, 2001. [10] EN ISO 14683, Thermal Bridges in Building Construction: Linear Thermal Transmittance. Simplied Methods and Default Values, 2000. [11] J. Kosny, E. Kossecka, Multi-dimensional heat transfer through complex building envelope assemblies in hourly energy simulation programs, Energy and Buildings 34 (2002) 445454. [12] I. Doebber, M. Ellis, Thermal performance benets of precast concrete panel and insulated concrete form technologies for residential construction, ASHRAE Trans 111 (2005) 340352. [13] SAPPEK, Development of innovative insulation elements based on stone wool, Project report, vol. 1, Lab. of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, 2007 (in Greek). [14] S. Chadiarakou, M. Santamouris, A. Papadopoulos, The importance of insulation on the buildings thermal losses, in: Proceedings of the CLIMAMED Congress, Lyon, November 2021, 2006, (2006), pp. 325332. [15] A.M. Papadopoulos, T. Theodosiou, K. Karatzas, Feasibility of energy saving renovation measures in urban buildings: the impact of energy prices and the acceptable pay back time criterion, Energy and Buildings 34 (2002) 455 466. [16] A.M. Papadopoulos, S. Oxizidis, G. Papandritsas, Energy, economic and environmental performance of heating systems used in Greek buildings, Energy and Buildings 40 (2008) 224230.

27% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions can be achieved on an annual basis (3.124.29 t/year). 5. Conclusions The study of representative wall insulation congurations in Greek buildings, applying both the currently valid calculation methodology and the more accurate approach which takes the thermal bridge effect into consideration, shows that the existing legislative frame is inadequate, leading to a signicant underestimation of actual energy consumption, especially in the case of cavity insulation. Considering the fact that the majority of the buildings constructed in the last twenty years are partially insulated and that thermal bridges are not considered by the calculation procedure, actual thermal losses in the cases of such buildings are by up to 35% higher than the initially estimated ones. The double brick wall construction used widely in Greece is particularly susceptible to allowing thermal bridges. Even when the actual construction fully implements the insulation study, heating requirements are in reality by 30% higher than the ones calculated by the current methodology which does not take thermal bridge effects into account. Interestingly enough, the underestimation of thermal losses is more misleading in the cases of fully insulated buildings than in the cases of partially insulated ones. It was also shown, that the current legislation disfavours the more effective conguration of external insulation, when compared to the cavity insulation, despite the fact that the former can minimise thermal losses in the thermal bridges and is also the most appealing solution when it comes to renovating existing buildings.