Life Cycle Cost Based Economic Assessment of Active Building Envelope (ABE) Systems

Active Building Envelope (ABE) systems represent a new thermal control technology that actively uses solar energy to compensate for heat losses or gains in buildings or other enclosures. In this paper, we develop a two-step procedure to evaluate the economic viability of ABE systems. The first step consists of performing a multi-objective optimization study to select a viable ABE system configuration. We develop generic engineering and cost models of the components of ABE systems to perform the multi-objective optimization that seeks to resolve the tradeoff between performance maximization and cost minimization. In the second step, we perform an economic evaluation of the ABE system configuration using a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) based analysis. The economic performance of the ABE system evaluated using the two-step procedure is compared to that of a conventional air-conditioning system. The results indicate that ABE systems have the potential to economically outperform conventional ones. The results of this study also provide potential directions for future research. The research presented in this paper represents a positive step forward in our ongoing efforts of developing ABE systems as a potentially economically viable and environmentally safe alternative to conventional air-conditioning technologies.