ORIGINAL ARTICLE Benchmarking heat consumption in educational buildings in the city of Kragujevac (Serbia) Nebojša Jurišević & Dušan Gordić & Nebojša Lukić & Mladen Josijević Received: 16 January 2017 /Accepted: 31 January 2018 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Educational buildings are buildings with spe- cial social importance, and their energy consumption requires particular attention. Since the majority of edu- cational buildings in Serbia were built between 1950 and 1990, with concrete frame, brick walls and poor thermal insulation, it can be concluded that these build- ings have relatively high potential for thermal energy savings. In this paper, specific heat consumption of educational buildings (42 different institutions classified throughout educational levels) in the city of Kragujevac (Serbia) was analysed in order to determine their specif- ic heat consumption (per heated floor area and per user) and to list the priorities for refurbishment. According to educational level, they were classified in preschool buildings, elementary and high schools and faculties (university buildings). Data about heat energy consump- tion were collected during several heating seasons in order to minimise the influence of seasonal climate variations. Values of specific heat energy consumption of the buildings were benchmarked with data on specific heat consumption of schools from different European countries. In order to accomplish the tasks, authors introduced the concept of weather normalised specific heat consumption. Results of the performed analysis pointed out preschool and elementary school buildings as refurbishment priorities since their average specific heat consumption is the biggest (186 and 176 kWh/m 2 / a, respectively). Besides, normalised specific heat con- sumptions of the educational buildings in Kragujevac are higher than in comparing countries, and the potential for their energy efficiency improvement is significant. Keywords Educational buildings . Heating energy . Energy performance . Energy benchmarking Introduction The highest share of final energy consumption on global level (2008) went on heat—47% (Elzinga et al. 2011). In Serbia, 57.6% of final heat energy consumption is attributable to building heating. 1 The consumption of heat in public sector is less than heat consumption in residential sector (9% of total heat demand on global level (Elzinga et al. 2011), 20.8% in total heat demand in EU 2 and 11.15% in total heat demand in Serbia (Statis- tical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2014). 1 Neverthe- less, it remains considerable energy efficiency problem since the specific heat consumption is about 50% higher than in the residential sector (Bećirović and Vasić 2013). Besides, the service sector in Europe (public and pri- vate) recorded the highest growth in the share of final energy consumption: 41.4% from 1990 to 2010 and 12.2% from 2005 to 2010. 3 Energy Efficiency https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-018-9631-y 1 Energy Balances—Balance of Heat in 2014, Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2 Eurostat, Electricity and Heat Statistics 2016 3 Eurostat, Final Energy Consumption by Sector 2016 N. Jurišević (*) : D. Gordić : N. Lukić : M. Josijević Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac, Sestre Janjića 6, Kragujevac 34000, Serbia e-mail: jurisevic@kg.ac.rs