Complex assessment of reconstruction works on an institutional building: A case study

Abstract Energy demands of current buildings present an important problem for building designers and engineers. However, the necessity to retrofit building envelopes and achieve a better thermal performance is substantially limited by the economic viability. Despite of the environmental benefits accompanied with enhanced thermal stability, a complex evaluation of the impact of reconstruction works from various perspectives is still needed. In this paper, a quantification of physical, social, economic, and environmental benefits resulting from the application of exterior thermal insulation system to an institutional building is presented. The temperature profiles in the wall cross-section are used for the assessment of the effect of expanded polystyrene boards. The annual energy consumption and carbon emission production is found to decrease by 46% as the result of better thermal performance. The improved social comfort is confirmed by the evaluation of predicted mean vote characterizing the average heat sensation of building occupants. The carbon payback of 3.24 years refers to low initial environmental burden in proportion to obtained energy savings. However, full investments recovery rate varying from 43 to 60 years in dependence on applied economic scenarios reaches almost the lifetime of used materials, which presents a substantial barrier despite of the discounted cost savings of 180,000 Euros during the 60-year lifespan.

[1]  Giuseppe Peter Vanoli,et al.  Rehabilitation of the building envelope of hospitals: Achievable energy savings and microclimatic control on varying the HVAC systems in Mediterranean climates , 2013 .

[2]  Mahmood Alam,et al.  Energy and economic analysis of Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) used in non-domestic buildings , 2017 .

[3]  Stuart Barlow,et al.  Occupant comfort in UK offices—How adaptive comfort theories might influence future low energy office refurbishment strategies , 2007 .

[4]  Eike Musall,et al.  From Low-Energy to Net Zero-Energy Buildings: Status and Perspectives , 2011 .

[5]  Heather Lovell,et al.  The Role of Individuals in Policy Change: The Case of UK Low-Energy Housing , 2009 .

[6]  Joshua D. Kneifel,et al.  Life-cycle carbon and cost analysis of energy efficiency measures in new commercial buildings , 2010 .

[7]  Robert H. Crawford,et al.  Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and energy analysis of prefabricated reusable building modules , 2012 .

[8]  J. Moore,et al.  Recent advances in carbon emissions reduction: policies, technologies, monitoring, assessment and modeling , 2015 .

[9]  Karen Allacker,et al.  Sustainability assessment of energy saving measures: A multi-criteria approach for residential buildings retrofitting—A case study of the Spanish housing stock , 2016 .

[10]  Zhihua Zhou,et al.  Achieving energy efficient buildings via retrofitting of existing buildings: a case study , 2016 .

[11]  Tingting Liu,et al.  Cost-benefit analysis for Energy Efficiency Retrofit of existing buildings: A case study in China , 2018 .

[12]  Stefano Paolo Corgnati,et al.  Methodology to define cost-optimal level of architectural measures for energy efficient retrofits of existing detached residential buildings in Turkey , 2016 .

[13]  J. Schleich,et al.  Making the implicit explicit: A look inside the implicit discount rate , 2016 .

[14]  Fausto Freire,et al.  Adaptive reuse of buildings: Eco-efficiency assessment of retrofit strategies for alternative uses of an historic building , 2017 .

[15]  Janusz Adamczyk,et al.  Economic and environmental benefits of thermal insulation of building external walls , 2011 .

[16]  Gregory A. Keoleian,et al.  Energy use and carbon reduction potentials from residential ground source heat pumps considering spatial and economic barriers , 2016 .

[17]  P. O. Fanger,et al.  Thermal comfort conditions during day and night , 2004, European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology.

[18]  Alex K. Jones,et al.  Dynamic life cycle assessment: framework and application to an institutional building , 2012, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[19]  Rahman Saidur,et al.  A review on emission analysis in cement industries , 2011 .

[20]  Teuku Meurah Indra Mahlia,et al.  Life cycle cost analysis and payback period of lighting retrofit at the University of Malaya , 2011 .

[21]  Carlos Henggeler Antunes,et al.  Estimating energy savings from behaviours using building performance simulations , 2017 .

[22]  Benedetto Rugani,et al.  Improvements to Emergy evaluations by using Life Cycle Assessment. , 2012, Environmental science & technology.

[23]  L. Mancini,et al.  Resource footprint of Europe: Complementarity of material flow analysis and life cycle assessment for policy support , 2015 .

[24]  Robert Ries,et al.  Estimating Construction Project Environmental Effects Using an Input-Output-Based Hybrid Life-Cycle Assessment Model , 2008 .

[25]  Sara Girón,et al.  Economic assessments of passive thermal rehabilitations of dwellings in Mediterranean climate , 2016 .

[26]  Graziano Salvalai,et al.  Analysis of different energy conservation strategies on existing school buildings in a Pre-Alpine Region , 2017 .

[27]  Fabio Rumler,et al.  Semi-Structural Forecasting of UK Inflation Based on the Hybrid New Keynesian Phillips Curve , 2015 .

[28]  G. Sangiorgi,et al.  An environmental economical and socio-political analysis of a variety of urban air-pollution reduction policies for primary PM10 and NOx: The case study of the Province of Milan (Northern Italy) , 2014 .

[29]  Janka Dibdiakova,et al.  A comparison of the environmental impacts of different categories of insulation materials , 2018 .

[30]  Borong Lin,et al.  A comparison of winter indoor thermal environment and thermal comfort between regions in Europe, North America, and Asia , 2017 .

[31]  T. Swarr.  A capability framework for managing social and environmental concerns , 2011 .

[32]  H. Son,et al.  Evolutionary many-objective optimization for retrofit planning in public buildings: A comparative study , 2018, Journal of Cleaner Production.

[33]  Nils Brown,et al.  Embodied greenhouse gas emissions from refurbishment of residential building stock to achieve a 50% operational energy reduction , 2014 .

[34]  Gerardo Maria Mauro,et al.  Artificial neural networks to predict energy performance and retrofit scenarios for any member of a building category: A novel approach , 2017 .

[35]  Edward Morofsky,et al.  A screening methodology for implementing cost effective energy retrofit measures in Canadian office , 2011 .

[36]  Luz Garcia-Ceballos,et al.  Life cycle study of different constructive solutions for building enclosures. , 2018, The Science of the total environment.

[37]  Andrew H. Buchanan,et al.  Energy and carbon dioxide implications of building construction , 1994 .

[38]  Olatz Pombo,et al.  The challenge of sustainable building renovation: assessment of current criteria and future outlook , 2015 .

[39]  Gilles Notton,et al.  Life cycle analysis of a building-integrated solar thermal collector, based on embodied energy and embodied carbon methodologies , 2014 .

[40]  S. Lwasa,et al.  Correlating negotiation hotspot issues, Paris climate agreement and the international climate policy regime , 2017 .

[41]  Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro,et al.  Energy retrofit strategies for housing sector in the arid climate , 2016 .

[42]  K. Liapis,et al.  Depreciation Methods and Life-cycle Costing (LCC) Methodology☆ , 2015 .

[43]  Eul-Bum Lee,et al.  Prediction method of real discount rate to improve accuracy of life-cycle cost analysis , 2017 .

[44]  Li Gao,et al.  Analysis on differences of carbon dioxide emission from cement production and their major determinants , 2015 .

[45]  Kathryn Davidson,et al.  Zero energy homes – Are they economically viable? , 2015 .

[46]  Robert Ries,et al.  The embodied energy and emissions of a high-rise education building: A quantification using process-based hybrid life cycle inventory model , 2012 .

[47]  Olatz Irulegi,et al.  Retrofit strategies towards Net Zero Energy Educational Buildings: A case study at the University of the Basque Country , 2017 .

[48]  Paul Cooper,et al.  Existing building retrofits: Methodology and state-of-the-art , 2012 .

[49]  Carsten Nathani,et al.  Economic potential of energy-efficient retrofitting in the Swiss residential building sector: The effects of policy instruments and energy price expectations , 2007 .

[50]  Ana Paula Melo,et al.  A novel surrogate model to support building energy labelling system: A new approach to assess cooling energy demand in commercial buildings , 2016 .

[51]  Zhengen Ren,et al.  Energy and GHG reductions considering embodied impacts of retrofitting existing dwelling stock in Greater Melbourne , 2018 .

[52]  Cpw Chris Geurts,et al.  Environmental impact evaluation of energy saving and energy generation: Case study for two Dutch dwelling types , 2016 .

[53]  Riccardo Battisti,et al.  Environmental assessment of solar thermal collectors with integrated water storage , 2005 .

[54]  G. Janssens‑Maenhout,et al.  Urban CO2 mitigation strategies under the Covenant of Mayors: an assessment of 124 European cities , 2017 .

[55]  Vytautas Martinaitis,et al.  Evaluation of energy efficiency measures sustainability by decision tree method , 2014 .

[56]  B. Moreno,et al.  Measuring the progress towards a resource-efficient European Union under the Europe 2020 strategy , 2018 .

[57]  Randolph Kirchain,et al.  Streamlined environmental and cost life-cycle approach for building thermal retrofits: A case of residential buildings in South European climates , 2018 .