Energy efficiency strategies for Brazilian social housing considering a life cycle perspective: Optimisation between thermal autonomy, energy consumption and costs

•Guidelines for social housing projects in the eight Brazilian bioclimatic zones.•Energy efficiency measures for the building envelope are evaluated as macrocomponents in the life cycle with Python routines.•Optimal cases present higher thermal performance in the national standard (NBR 15575) with life cycle cost-effectiveness.•The study presented served as a basis for a national social housing policy.