Combining embodied and operational energy in buildings refurbishment assessment

Abstract

Buildings’ refurbishment is becoming a major trend in civil construction in Europe. At the same time European environmental and cultural commitments are being transposed to building and urban regulations. Energy efficiency and heritage safeguarding are two objectives of buildings’ refurbishment policies which do not always lead to the same refurbishment options. Energy efficiency assessment is not always suitable to existing buildings in different local contexts and, while focusing on operational energy, it does not include embodied energy in buildings.This article calculates and combines embodied energy and operational energy, proposing a methodology for the assessment of building components life-cycle energy, suitable for the assessment of repairing and replacing scenarios. The methodology is applied to a case study, comparing walls repair or replacement and considering different scenarios of users’ requirements of thermal comfort. Results show the advantages of preserving building components and materials in terms of whole life cycle energy demand.