Multi objective planning for sustainable retrofit of educational buildings

Abstract The sustainable retrofit options may significantly improve the energy consumption and the environmental impacts of the existing buildings. This paper presents a multi objective optimization framework to reach the minimum economic costs and Global Warming Potential (GWP) impact of existing buildings. New energy-efficient technologies for the supply side of the energy system are considered which may minimize life cycle environmental impacts of buildings. Two educational buildings in the campus of Sharif University of Technology are studied. The results show that utilizing reciprocating engine and exhaust-fired absorption chiller reduce the GWP to 133 tons (17.79% of reduction) and 190 tones (20.8% of reduction) of CO2 eq. for the first and second case studies, respectively. The results show that the existing energy systems in both cases are economically optimal. Moreover, the result of Pareto optimal frontier for both case studies describe the trades off between economic and environmental objectives. The findings of present work will guide the energy managers to minimize the environmental effects of educational buildings. This study implies the need for policy measures to retrofit the buildings based on a whole life cycle point of view, instead of the usual ways of giving sole importance to the operational impacts of buildings. With buildings becoming more energy-efficient during their operational stage, there is an urgent need for an increased focus on operational optimization considering the life cycle impacts of solutions including energy efficiency technologies and utilization of renewable energies.

[1]  Ralph Evins,et al.  A review of computational optimisation methods applied to sustainable building design , 2013 .

[2]  Pascal Henry Biwole,et al.  Multi-Objective Optimization Methodology for Net Zero Energy Buildings , 2018 .

[3]  Christos N. Markides,et al.  Optimal Design and Operation of Distributed Low-Carbon Energy Technologies in Commercial Buildings , 2018 .

[4]  Ahmed Mezrhab,et al.  Shading devices optimization to enhance thermal comfort and energy performance of a residential building in Morocco , 2018, Journal of Building Engineering.

[5]  Khaled A El-Rayes,et al.  Optimizing the selection of building upgrade measures to minimize the operational negative environmental impacts of existing buildings , 2015 .

[6]  Carlos Henggeler Antunes,et al.  A life cycle multi-objective economic and environmental assessment of distributed generation in buildings , 2015 .

[7]  Jan Carmeliet,et al.  Multiobjective optimisation of energy systems and building envelope retrofit in a residential community , 2017 .

[8]  Oscar Ortiz,et al.  Sustainability in the construction industry: A review of recent developments based on LCA , 2009 .

[9]  Robert Ries,et al.  Life cycle optimization of building energy systems , 2008 .

[10]  Patrick Janssen,et al.  Multi-objective optimisation of building form, envelope and cooling system for improved building energy performance , 2018, Automation in Construction.

[11]  Luis Fabián Fuentes-Cortés,et al.  Integration of distributed generation technologies on sustainable buildings , 2018 .

[12]  Pedro J. Mago,et al.  Combined cooling, heating and power: A review of performance improvement and optimization , 2014 .

[13]  Aris Tsangrassoulis,et al.  Algorithms for optimization of building design: A review , 2014 .

[14]  Michela Robba,et al.  Optimal Planning of Sustainable Buildings: Integration of Life Cycle Assessment and Optimization in a Decision Support System (DSS) , 2016 .

[15]  Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez,et al.  Multi-objective optimization coupled with life cycle assessment for retrofitting buildings , 2014 .

[16]  F. Jolai,et al.  Optimal investment and unit sizing of distributed energy systems under uncertainty: A robust optimization approach , 2014 .

[17]  Pouria Ahmadi,et al.  Evaluation and sizing of a CCHP system for a commercial and office buildings , 2016 .

[18]  Evangelos Grigoroudis,et al.  Towards a multi-objective optimization approach for improving energy efficiency in buildings , 2008 .

[19]  Amin Hammad,et al.  Simulation-Based Multi-Objective Optimization of institutional building renovation considering energy consumption, Life-Cycle Cost and Life-Cycle Assessment , 2019, Journal of Building Engineering.

[20]  Gerardo Maria Mauro,et al.  Energy retrofit of educational buildings: Transient energy simulations, model calibration and multi-objective optimization towards nearly zero-energy performance , 2017 .