IMPROVING BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY BY OPTIMIZING FACADE SOLAR INSOLATION USE

In R. of Macedonia, ongoing public procurement projects for facade renovation of existing buildings intend to improve their energy performance and sustainability. The current efforts for this realization focus primarily on applying thermal insulation while not considering the benefits of utilizing passive solar design. The facades of the aforementioned buildings are not designed according to these principles. We argue that redesigning and optimizing the facade shape and glazing percentage can substantially contribute to the energy performance of an existing building. This paper presents the results of the study carried out on one of the ongoing procurement projects. A relevant facade of an existing building is analyzed in order to maximize its insolation by optimizing the shape and glazing. The optimization methodology applies evolutionary solving tool named Galapagos which retrieves solar insolation data from Ecotect via the Geco plug-in. A grid is plotted on the facade where each knot can shift its relative position in an iterative process until the most optimal facade shape is achieved. The optimized and existing insulated facades are compared in terms of energy performance, cost and return of investment. It is concluded that the total sum of construction and operational costs of the facade with optimal shape are higher compared to the insulated facade with existing shape; moreover, beside the larger energy savings the return of investment period is prolonged due to higher construction cost.