Optimal Energy-efficiency Retrofit and Maintenance Planning for Existing Buildings Considering Green Building Policy Compliance

Optimal Energy-efficiency Retrofit and Maintenance Planning for Existing Buildings Considering Green Building Policy Compliance
Author: Yuling Fan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2017
Genre: Buildings
ISBN:

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Reducing global energy consumption is a common challenge faced by the human race due to the energy shortage and growing energy demands. The building sector bears a large responsibility for the total energy consumption throughout the world. In particular, it was concluded that existing buildings, which are usually old and energy-inefficient, are the main reason for the high energy consumption of the building sector, in view of the low replacement rate (about 1%-3% per year) of existing buildings by new energy-efficient buildings. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings is a feasible and effective way to reduce energy consumption and mitigate the environmental impact of the building sector. The high energy intensity and requirements of a green building policy are the main motivation of this study, which focuses on finding cost-effective solutions to green building retrofit and maintenance planning to reduce energy consumption and ensure policy compliance. As about 50% of the total energy usage of a general building is caused by its envelope system, this study first proposes a multi-objective optimization approach for building envelope retrofit planning in Chapter 2. The purpose is to maximize the energy savings and economic benefits of an investment by improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings with the optimal retrofit plans obtained from the proposed approach. In the model formulation, important indicators for decision makers to evaluate an investment, including energy savings, net present value and the payback period, are taken into consideration. In addition, a photovoltaic (PV) power supply system is considered to reduce the energy demand of buildings because of the adequate solar resource in South Africa. The performance degradation of the PV system and corresponding maintenance cost are built into the optimization process for an accurate estimation of the energy savings and payback period of the investment so that decision makers are able to make informed decisions. The proposed model also gives decision makers a convenient way to interact with the optimization process to obtain a desired optimal retrofit plan according to their preferences over different objectives. In addition to the envelope system, the indoor systems of a general building also account for a large proportion of the total energy demand of a building. In the literature, research related to building retrofit planning methods aiming at saving energy examines either the indoor appliances or the envelope components. No study on systematic retrofit plan for the whole building, including both the envelope system and the indoor systems, has been reported so far. In addition, a systematic whole-building retrofit plan taking into account the green building policy, which in South Africa is the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating system, is urgently needed to help decision makers to ensure that the retrofit is financially beneficial and the resulting building complies with the green building policy requirements. This has not been investigated in the literature. Therefore, Chapter 4 of this thesis fills the above-mentioned gaps and presents a model that can determine an optimal retrofit plan for the whole building, considering both the envelope system and indoor systems, aiming at maximizing energy savings in the most cost-effective way and achieving a good rating from the EPC rating system to comply with the green building policy in South Africa. As reaching the best energy level from the EPC rating system for a building usually requires a high amount of investment, resulting in a long payback period, which is not attractive for decision makers in view of the vulnerable economic situation of South Africa, the proposed model treats the retrofit plan as a multi-year project, improving efficiency targets in consecutive years. That is to say, the model breaks down the once-off long-term project into smaller projects over multiple financial years with shorter payback periods. In that way, the financial concerns of the investors are alleviated. In addition, a tax incentive program to encourage energy saving investments in South Africa is considered in the optimization problem to explore the economic benefits of the retrofit projects fully. Considering both the envelope system and indoor systems, many systems and items that can be retrofitted and massive retrofit options available for them result in a large number of discrete decision variables for the optimization problem. The inherent non-linearity and multi-objective nature of the optimization problem and other factors such as the requirements of the EPC system make it difficult to solve the building retrofit problem. The complexity of the problem is further increased when the target buildings have many floors. In addition, there is a large number of parameters that need to be obtained in the building retrofit optimization problem. This requires a detailed energy audit of the buildings to be retrofitted, which is an expensive bottom-up modeling exercise. To address these challenges, two simplified methods to reduce the complexity of finding the optimal whole-building retrofit plans are proposed in Chapter 4. Lastly, an optimal maintenance planning strategy is presented in Chapter 5 to ensure the sustainability of the retrofit. It is natural that the performance of all the retrofitted items will degrade over time and consequently the energy savings achieved by the retrofit will diminish. The maintenance plan is therefore studied to restore the energy performance of the buildings after retrofit in a cost-effective way. Maintenance planning for the indoor systems is not considered in this study because it has been thoroughly investigated in the literature. In addition, a maintenance plan for the PV system involved in the retrofit of this study is investigated in Chapter 2.

Deep Energy Retrofit Guide for Public Buildings

Deep Energy Retrofit Guide for Public Buildings
Author: Rüdiger Lohse
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 135
Release: 2019-04-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030149226

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This book provides detailed information on how to set up Deep Energy Retrofits (DERs) in public buildings, and shares in-depth insights into the current status of the major technologies, strategies and practical best practice examples of how to cost-effectively combine them. Case studies from Europe are analyzed with respect to energy use before and after renovation, reasons for undertaking the renovation, co-benefits achieved, resulting cost-effectiveness, and the business models employed. The building sector holds the potential for tremendous improvements in terms of energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions, and energy retrofits to the existing building stock represent a significant opportunity in the transition to a low-carbon future. Moreover, investing in highly efficient building materials and systems can replace long-term energy imports, contribute to cost cutting, and create a wealth of new jobs. Yet, while the technologies needed in order to improve energy efficiency are readily available, significant progress has not yet been made, and “best practices” for implementing building technologies and renewable energy sources are still relegated to small “niche” applications. Offering essential information on Deep Energy Retrofits, the book offers a valuable asset for architects, public authorities, project developers, and engineers alike.

Optimal Design and Retrofit of Energy Efficient Buildings, Communities, and Urban Centers

Optimal Design and Retrofit of Energy Efficient Buildings, Communities, and Urban Centers
Author: Moncef Krarti
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
Total Pages: 648
Release: 2018-03-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0128118946

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Optimal Design and Retrofit of Energy Efficient Buildings, Communities, and Urban Centers presents current techniques and technologies for energy efficiency in buildings. Cases introduce and demonstrate applications in both the design of new buildings and retrofit of existing structures. The book begins with an introduction that includes energy consumption statistics, building energy efficiency codes, and standards and labels from around the world. It then highlights the need for integrated and comprehensive energy analysis approaches. Subsequent sections present an overview of advanced energy efficiency technologies for buildings, including dynamic insulation materials, phase change materials, LED lighting and daylight controls, Life Cycle Analysis, and more. This book provides researchers and professionals with a coherent set of tools and techniques for enhancing energy efficiency in new and existing buildings. The case studies presented help practitioners implement the techniques and technologies in their own projects. Introduces a holistic analysis approach to energy efficiency for buildings using the concept of energy productivity Provides coverage of individual buildings, communities and urban centers Includes both the design of new buildings and retrofitting of existing structures to improve energy efficiency Describes state-of-the-art energy efficiency technologies Presents several cases studies and examples that illustrate the analysis techniques and impact of energy efficiency technologies and controls

Retrofitting for Optimal Energy Performance

Retrofitting for Optimal Energy Performance
Author: Tantau, Adrian
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1522591060

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Retrofitting expresses, in a traditional approach, the process of improving something after it has been manufactured, constructed, or assembled. These systems integrate new technologies, new functions, and new services that increase the energy performance in existing private, public, and commercial buildings. Retrofitting for Optimal Energy Performance is a comprehensive reference source that examines environmentally conscious technologies and their applications in advancing retrofitting practices. Providing relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area, it highlights an array of topics such as climate change, energy management, and optimization modeling, and is essential for academicians, students, researchers, engineers, architects, entrepreneurs, managers, policymakers, and building owners.

Build New Or Retrofit? Leverage Cost Benefits for Building Energy Efficiency

Build New Or Retrofit? Leverage Cost Benefits for Building Energy Efficiency
Author: Dong Zhao
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:

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Buildings consume huge energy and omit large CO2 emissions. Green buildings adopt advanced building technologies and largely reduce energy consumption. A barrier to wide green building development is the high costs that include hard costs for materials, construction, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and soft costs for design services, financing, overhead, insurance, taxes, and fees. Except for new construction projects, retrofit projects also produce green buildings through remodeling, renovation, and redevelopment of existing buildings or properties. Most extant studies focus on the cost analysis of green buildings and non-green buildings; however, there is a lack of evidence about the cost benefits in comparing new and retrofit projects. The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence for the cost decomposition of new and retrofit projects and analyze the cost benefits between them. This study collects the data on energy use, building technology, and costs from 235 certified green homes in the United States and evaluates the cost benefits. Results show that the average cost of energy retrofit projects is $118.0/ft2 ($1,270.5/m2) in the 2021 U.S. dollar value, 30% less than new projects. The major element of the costs is land acquisition and development, which accounts for 35% of the retrofit costs and six times greater than new projects. When excluding the land costs, the average cost drops to 68.2/ft2 ($733.88/m2), 49% less than new projects. Retrofit projects use similar building technologies as new projects and produce larger energy savings. The findings demonstrate that the cost-benefit values generated by retrofit projects are 86% greater than new projects considering the land costs and 142% greater without considering the land costs. This study contributes to the cost management for complex building projects and energy policy for sustainable developments, suggesting a great potential of energy retrofit to overcome the barrier of high costs in promoting the green building movement as well as implications for public policies such as effective subsidy programs.

A Control System Framework for Building Energy Retrofitting and Maintenance Planning

A Control System Framework for Building Energy Retrofitting and Maintenance Planning
Author: Bo Wang
Publisher:
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

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The building energy efficiency has received massive attention from the government, industry and academia, due to the mismatch between the shortage of energy resources and the growing energy demands. The building is a complex system with a variety of components. One or several components can comprise a subsystem that provides additional or enhanced functionality to the building. These subsystems reveal enormous energy efficiency opportunities in buildings, including the power quality control, smart appliance operation, energy flow balance and energy efficiency project planning. Accordingly, a hierarchical building energy efficiency framework can be identified by categorising these energy efficiency opportunities into four layers: the power electronics layer, smart appliance layer, energy flow layer and planning layer. The four layers are distinguished by different functionalities and control intervals. While the first three layers involve excessively studied engineering fields, the energy efficiency planning is nevertheless less well understood, due to the lack of a systematic approach to model, evaluate and optimize the planning of building energy efficiency projects. As a result, the energy efficiency project planning has received increasing attentions from the researchers in the recent years. The retrofitting of existing buildings is one of the most important types of building energy efficiency projects, as the existing buildings account for a large portion of final energy consumptions in the world. The retrofitting planning aims at maximizing the energy and economy performances with limited budget and manpower. Therefore, the retrofitting planning is a kind of investment decision to make best use of the investment. However, such an investment decision is difficult due to the interactions of the multiple layers in building energy efficiency framework. Furthermore, the retrofitting investment decisions suffer significant risks from the failures of retrofitted items during operation. According to measurement and verification principles, failures of retrofitted items result in the decrease of the energy savings, which are the major concern of a retrofitting project. Although the deteriorated energy savings can be restored by applying maintenance actions, the economy performances receive further impacts from the maintenance costs. In summary, the investment decision of a retrofitting project can be very complex, manifesting multiple time scales and significant dynamics when simultaneously taking into account the retrofitting and maintenance planning. In order to address the investment decision complexity, a control system framework is proposed, where the dynamics of aggregated performances can be addressed and optimized. A necessary simplification is adopted where the retrofitted items are categorised into several groups. Each group consists of items that are considered to be homogeneous ones, i.e., with the same inherent energy and reliability performances, the same operating schedules and similar operational environment. Thereafter, the aggregate energy savings can be computed by the individual item savings and the item group populations. In this way, the control system modelling at management level can be obtained. The state variables are the item group populations, and the control inputs are the maintenance intensities, i.e., the count of the restored items from one group at a specific instant. Such instant is called maintenance instant, i.e., a time point at which the maintenance actions are scheduled to take place. The statistical laws of the item group population decay comprise the system dynamics. The measured outputs are the aggregate energy and economy performances. Thereafter, the retrofitting and maintenance planning are cast into an optimal control problem. A finite decision horizon, namely the sustainability period is defined, based on which the control objectives are obtained, i.e., maximising the aggregate energy savings and financial benefits. A series of constraints are accordingly introduced, e.g., the targeted energy saving limit, budget limit and payback period limit, etc. The influences of uncertainty factors are taken into account to be random noises on the state variables and measured outputs. Consequently, the control approaches can be introduced to address the retrofitting and maintenance planning. A model predictive control approach with a differential evolution algorithm based numerical solver is employed for the controller design in most of the illustrative studies. The control system framework allows development and expansion by selecting different state variables and control inputs. Given that the selective control inputs involve a broad field of maintenance engineering, a number of maintenance categories comprise the alternatives of control inputs. The introduction of different maintenance categories provides more options to decision makers. Thereafter, the complexity of performance dynamics can be addressed, and the utility of limited capitals and manpower can be improved. Following this idea, a series of extensive studies are conducted and illustrated after the elaboration of the control system framework. Firstly, a control system modelling with coupled state variables is proposed to address the interacting energy effects between different categories of retrofitted item groups. Secondly, the energy saving deterioration of retrofitted items before malfunctions is modelled by a multi-state system approach, which incorporates two different maintenance categories into the planning. Thirdly, the collaborative optimisation of the maintenance intensities and instants is proposed, where additional energy efficiency opportunities are identified. Finally, the robustness of control system performances when different grouping methods are applied is investigated. These extensive studies will be introduced in respective chapters in this dissertation.

Buildings for Education

Buildings for Education
Author: Stefano Della Torre
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2019-01-01
Genre: Building
ISBN: 3030336875

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This open access book presents theoretical and practical research relating to the vast, publicly financed program for the construction of new schools and the reorganization of existing educational buildings in Italy. This transformative process aims to give old buildings a fresh identity, to ensure that facilities are compliant with the new educational and teaching models, and to improve both energy efficiency and structural safety with respect to seismic activity. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on the social role of the school as a civic building that can serve the needs of the community. Innovations in both design and construction processes are then analyzed, paying special attention to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) strategy as a tool for the integration of different disciplines. The final section is devoted to the built heritage and tools, technologies, and approaches for the upgrading of existing buildings so that they meet the new regulations on building performance. The book will be of interest to all who wish to learn about the latest insights into the challenges posed by, and the opportunities afforded by, a comprehensive school building and renovation program.

Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States

Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2010-06-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309156866

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America's economy and lifestyles have been shaped by the low prices and availability of energy. In the last decade, however, the prices of oil, natural gas, and coal have increased dramatically, leaving consumers and the industrial and service sectors looking for ways to reduce energy use. To achieve greater energy efficiency, we need technology, more informed consumers and producers, and investments in more energy-efficient industrial processes, businesses, residences, and transportation. As part of the America's Energy Future project, Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States examines the potential for reducing energy demand through improving efficiency by using existing technologies, technologies developed but not yet utilized widely, and prospective technologies. The book evaluates technologies based on their estimated times to initial commercial deployment, and provides an analysis of costs, barriers, and research needs. This quantitative characterization of technologies will guide policy makers toward planning the future of energy use in America. This book will also have much to offer to industry leaders, investors, environmentalists, and others looking for a practical diagnosis of energy efficiency possibilities.

Method for Determining Optimal Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofit Packages

Method for Determining Optimal Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofit Packages
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

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Businesses, government agencies, consumers, policy makers, and utilities currently have limited access to occupant-, building-, and location-specific recommendations for optimal energy retrofit packages, as defined by estimated costs and energy savings. This report describes an analysis method for determining optimal residential energy efficiency retrofit packages and, as an illustrative example,applies the analysis method to a 1960s-era home in eight U.S. cities covering a range of International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) climate regions. The method uses an optimization scheme that considers average energy use (determined from building energy simulations) and equivalent annual cost to recommend optimal retrofit packages specific to the building, occupants, and location. Energysavings and incremental costs are calculated relative to a minimum upgrade reference scenario, which accounts for efficiency upgrades that would occur in the absence of a retrofit because of equipment wear-out and replacement with current minimum standards.

Passive Energy Conservation Management in Retrofit Buildings

Passive Energy Conservation Management in Retrofit Buildings
Author: Amiri Fard Farhad
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

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A significant share of the total primary energy belongs to buildings. In many buildings, improving energy performance of buildings is of particular importance in new construction and existing buildings. Building refurbishment is considered a practical pathway towards energy efficiency as the replacement of older buildings is at a slow pace. There are various ways of incorporating energy conservation measures in buildings through refurbishment projects. In doing so, we have to choose among various passive or active measures. The energy usage can be significantly reduced by adopting passive measures. These methods might not need additional capital investment. An integrated building renovation approach, in which passive methods are implemented, can reduce the energy consumption of building, compensating the additional cost of new technologies. This thesis aims at developing an integrated assessment-optimization framework to provide a decision support for prioritization and selection of building refurbishment measures with energy conservation potentials by considering the cost uncertainty. Firstly, a literature review is carried out to ascertain the state of the art in the retrofit decisions in buildings at the presence of several decision criteria. possible and available passive measures are investigated and identified based on four energy control principles. Secondly, the analytic network process (ANP) is reviewed as a multiple criteria decision-making method capable of incorporating the interdependencies among decision criteria to arrive at an overall assessment (relative scores) for alternative retrofit measures. To incorporate uncertainties in formulating the initial cost of materials, a fuzzy set approach is adopted. Then, the scores resulted from the assessment phase are formulated a utility objective function to be maximized alongside the cost objective function(s) that are minimized. The fuzzy numbers representing the cost uncertainties are incorporated into the cost objective function using alternative methods of graded mean integration, aggregate approach and interval approach. Various Solution approaches are then utilized for the multi-objective models to deal with the conflicting objectives including distance to ideal, compromise programming and goal programming. The cases of linear and integer assumptions about decision variables are investigated. The applicability of the proposed three-stage assessment-optimization approach under uncertainty is then illustrated through the case study of a typical building in order to verify its applicability and usefulness and the solution scenarios are explored and compared The proposed framework can assist decision makers in choosing the best passive measures in the planning phase of the building refurbishment addressing the complexities arising from multiplicity of feasible measures and their varied characteristics.Finally, in terms of the impact of the above research, it worth mentioning that 40% of final energy is used in buildings and the use of passive measures as a means of refurbishment for building stocks could create significant energy efficiency gains.