Deep energy retrofit of vernacular housing Manuela Almeida malmeida@civil.uminho.pt Marco Ferreira, Ana Rodrigues Dep. of Civil Engineering University of Minho, Portugal André Coelho, Inês Cabral, Gonçalo Machado Ecoperfil, Portugal uch has been done over the last decades regarding the improvement of energy performance in buildings and sustainable construction. Nevertheless, for the case of existing buildings, the constraints are very relevant, not only for tecnhical reasons, but also because of the risk of compromising significantly the identity of the building. In these cases, the technical and identity qualities should be carefully weighed with all the possible measures being evaluated from both perspectives. Taking advantage of the recent growth in tourism activities in rural regions of the north of Portugal, the renovation potential of a tradicional abandoned house has been analyzed to be used for sustainable tourism activities. It aims at providing accommodation with sustainability principles, which means optimal use of environmental resources, respect and interaction with the host communities and viable, long-term economic operations providing fairly distributed socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders. The house was originally built in 1940 with traditional vernacular principles, presenting uninsulated granite stone walls, wood structure floors and roof, ground floor in direct contact with soil (animal shelter) and single glazed windows with wooden frames. The external walls are massive but they are loosely arranged in some areas in need of structural reinforcement. It is located in a small rural village in the hills of Peneda, at an altitude of 726m above sea level and the local climate presents 2770 heating degree days for a reference temperature of 20°C. The house is not served by any support system, including lighting, water supply and sewerage. There is no electricity or phone access and heating, during the time it was habited, was provided by a fireplace which was also used for cooking. Figure 1. Country house southeast and southwest facades M An existing ruin of a vernacular house located in a rural area of Portugal is being renovated, aiming for architectural identity preservation and low environmental impact, to offer suitable comfort conditions for tourism exploitation. Calculated global energy consumption reduction is 94% of the calculated current energy use of the building