A multi-criteria approach to affordable energy-efficient retrofit of primary school buildings

Abstract The majority of the buildings was built before the energy efficiency prospering in the construction sector. Hence, they are consuming an enormous energy amount that can be preserved considerably by applying some not even advanced retrofit measures. Schools' low budget is a problem that managers are encountered. Thus the high retrofit cost can prevent taking proper actions. However, considering the measures leading to higher energy efficiency with appropriate cost and payback period, together with taking the lifespan of buildings and the economic benefits during this extended period, would make the actions attractive. This research aims at defining a multi-parameter approach to distinguish energy efficient measures with proper cost, payback period and CO2 emission for primary school buildings’ retrofit. It is following the concept of cost-optimal building retrofit introduced by the EPBD-recast. To assess the proposed approach, two typical school buildings were considered as case studies, the model was created and validated by real consumptions, and then some measures were applied to the envelope, mechanical and lighting system. After driven cost-optimal measures, the comfort analyses were conducted and some of the measures were excluded due to worsening the comfort conditions. The results indicate that, in the suitable cost-optimal scenarios, the potential of primary energy savings and CO2 emission reductions are approximately 60%, and savings for global cost would amount to more than 42%, while the payback periods are less than seven years.

[1]  P. O. Fanger,et al.  Thermal comfort: analysis and applications in environmental engineering, , 1972 .

[2]  Juha Jokisalo,et al.  Energy performance and environmental impact analysis of cost-optimal renovation solutions of large panel apartment buildings in Finland , 2017 .

[3]  Juha Jokisalo,et al.  Cost-optimal energy performance renovation measures of educational buildings in cold climate , 2016 .

[4]  Virgilio Ciancio,et al.  Effects of local conditions on the multi-variable and multi-objective energy optimization of residential buildings using genetic algorithms , 2020 .

[5]  Richard de Dear,et al.  Thermal comfort expectations and adaptive behavioural characteristics of primary and secondary school students , 2018 .

[6]  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 .

[7]  Gerardo Maria Mauro,et al.  Multi-stage and multi-objective optimization for energy retrofitting a developed hospital reference building: A new approach to assess cost-optimality , 2016 .

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

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

[10]  Andrea Kindinis,et al.  Energy and comfort assessment in educational building: Case study in a French university campus , 2017 .

[11]  Emanuel Stocker,et al.  Cost-optimal renovation and energy performance: Evidence from existing school buildings in the Alps , 2015 .

[12]  Carlos Henggeler Antunes,et al.  A comparison between cost optimality and return on investment for energy retrofit in buildings-A real options perspective , 2016 .

[13]  Yingni Jiang,et al.  Generation of typical meteorological year for different climates of China , 2010 .

[14]  Gerardo Maria Mauro,et al.  Resilience of robust cost-optimal energy retrofit of buildings to global warming: A multi-stage, multi-objective approach , 2017 .

[15]  Gerardo Maria Mauro,et al.  A new comprehensive approach for cost-optimal building design integrated with the multi-objective model predictive control of HVAC systems , 2017 .