Recently, the European Union set new rules for the Energy Performance of Buildings emphasizing the need to facilitate the cost-effective renovation of existing buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB). Within this framework, the aim of this paper is to investigate and evaluate the energy performance of existing public buildings before and after renovation into nearly zero-energy buildings. Since the general quality of existing buildings in Croatia has changed over different periods of construction, the presented research was conducted on a representative nursing home designed corresponding to different Croatian national building stock construction periods, based on a public sector buildings database obtained from the Croatian Energy Management Information System (EMIS). The thermal performance of the building envelope was designed to correspond to the periods of buildings built up to 1940, between 1941 and 1970, and between 1971 and 1980, taking into account characteristic building construction technology and service life. In terms of adopted energy efficiency measures, for all nearly zero-energy building renovation solutions, an energy and cost analysis was performed. The results showed that construction technology applied in different construction periods has the greatest impact on the energy performance of a building and thus on the economic and financial viability of investment in nZEB.

Hollow concrete masonry blocks made of low strength self-compacting concrete with recycled crushed brick and ground polystyrene as an aggregate (RBC-EP blocks), and their expected structural role as masonry infill in steel frames, has been confirmed in previous research studies, thus the extensive investigation of thermal properties is presented in this paper to fully approve their potential application in practice. The Heat Flow and Temperature Based Method was used to conduct in-situ measurements of the wall thermal transmittance (U-value). The experimental U-values of the wall without insulation varied from 1.363 to 1.782 W/m²·K, and the theoretical value was calculated to be 2.01 W/m²·K. Thermal conductivity of the material used for making RBC-EP blocks was measured in a laboratory by using a heat flow meter instrument. To better understand the thermal performance characteristics of a wall constructed from RBC-EP blocks, a comparison with standard materials currently used and found on the market was performed. Walls constructed from RBC-EP blocks show an improvement of building technology and environmentally based enhancement of concrete blocks, since they use recycled materials. They can replace standard lightweight concrete blocks due to their desired mechanical properties, as well as the better thermal performance properties compared to commonly used materials for building walls.

In this study, the influence of freeze/thaw cycles on the mechanical and thermal properties of bricks and mortar as building parts of masonry walls, as well as the influence on the masonry wall itself is investigated. At the material level, the influence of freeze and thaw cycles on the mechanical and thermal properties of masonry components (bricks and mortar) was investigated; at the construction level, the influence of freeze and thaw cycles on the mechanical and thermal properties of a masonry wall was studied. To study the influence of freezing on the energy demand characteristics of masonry buildings, in terms of energy conservation and greenhouse gas emission, a case study was investigated on a typical structure of a historical building located in Croatia, that had undergone a process of energy certification. The applied freeze/thaw regime negatively influenced the compressive strength and the thermal properties of bricks and mortar, as well as the mechanical and thermal properties of the wall. Considering the thermal properties of the material before and after its exposure to freeze/thaw cycles, we concluded that the annual energy consumption, the heating costs, and the CO₂ emission of a family house could increase up to 3.7% after frost action in the studied case.

A significant number of houses made of earth are located in the Central and Eastern part of Croatia. Due to an insufficiently raised level of awareness of their importance and significance, they mainly decay. However, in Croatia, there are also ethno villages with inhabited traditional and renovated earthen houses. All the attempts to rehabilitate earthen houses are mostly carried out without the use of any design standards. In addition, national technical regulations do not contain information on the thermal properties of the earth as a material for the construction of structural and non-structural elements. Therefore, to ensure better renovation quality, raise awareness of the importance of traditional earthen houses, and prevent their deterioration, in this paper the first extensive study on thermal conductivity of earthen wall materials of traditional houses from Croatia was conducted. The experimental measurements were performed on five reproduced soil mixtures and full-scale rammed earth walls. The thermal conductivity of rammed earth samples was measured using FOX 200 apparatus. The obtained thermal conductivity values of earthen materials were compared with the thermal conductivity values of modern building materials. First test results showed better thermal performance of earthen materials than of both reinforced concrete and solid brick, having a value of thermal conductivity of around 0.32 W/(m K).