Evaluating the impact of required cooling expenditure on households’ energy burden: The Spanish case study

Abstract

Adequately meeting space cooling needs has traditionally been considered a luxury in the Spanish residential sector. However, this trend is changing, concurrently with the increase in reversible heat pumps’ installation, supported by the Spanish Building Code. In addition, several studies estimate that rising temperatures and heat waves will lead to significant growth in the required cooling demand.In that context, this work describes a model that calculates the required thermal energy expenditure for cooling and analyses its outcomes in a series of case studies in Spain.The results show that, currently, in most of the analysed cases, the inclusion of cooling does not represent an excessive additional cost within the overall household’s energy expenditure. However, the outcomes also point out that this summer energy burden is heavier (in both relative and absolute terms) in the southern regions, thus highlighting the need for local actions, especially in a climate change context.