Almost everyone concerned with energy conservation who has made any kind of indepth study will acknowledge that energy conservation in existing buildings will have a far greater impact on total energy savings in the next five years than energy conservation in new buildings. There has been a great deal of criteria and guidelines set forth for saving energy in the construction of new buildings. The concepts of good insulation, minimum outside air requirements utilizing efficient HVAC systems, and heat recovery techniques of internal energy and exhaust air are generally conceded tobe effective means of providing energy conservation in new construction.

However, the most effective means of providing energy conservation in existing buildings does not have the same general consensus of opinion. It has been generally assumed that providing the known energy conservation techniques should be accomplished before applying an alternate energy source such as solar energy. This study compares the economic cost effectiveness of solar heating, both with and without energy conservation techniques applied to the existing building.