DanRETRO: A Decision-Making Tool for Energy Retrofit Design and Assessment of Danish Buildings

Henrik Engelbrecht Foldager,Muhyiddine Jradi,Rasmus Camillus Jeppesen

doi:10.3390/su11143794

Henrik Engelbrecht Foldager, Muhyiddine Jradi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11143794

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jul 11, 2019
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Maersk (Denmark), University of Southern Denmark

Abstract

The building sector contributes a substantial amount to the overall energy consumption worldwide along with a large share in the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, improving the performance of buildings is vital to achieve the energy and environmental goals. In this regard, Denmark is not an exception, where the building sector was prioritized, aiming to enhance newly-built buildings’ performance along with upgrading existing buildings through a comprehensive energy retrofit strategy. This study aims to present and demonstrate a decision-making tool for energy retrofit design and assessment of Danish buildings (DanRETRO). Unlike the current energy retrofit assessment methodologies and tools used in the Danish building market, DanRETRO builds on a database comprising a large number of simulations for Danish buildings’ performances of various types, sizes, and ages. The well-established modeling and simulation engine of EnergyPlus is used to develop the dynamic energy models. The DanRETRO tool development is presented, where multiple building retrofitting techniques and measures are carried out along with assessment of the impacts of implementing these improvements on the technical, economic, and environmental levels. The tool’s demonstration in three case study buildings is presented, where the retrofit assessment results are reported and evaluated at various levels.

Highlights

Buildings consume around 40% of the total energy consumption in the EU and U.S, with an equivalent contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions [1]
Huge efforts have been concentrated in the last decades on improving the overall energy performance of newly-built buildings [2,3], in addition to retrofitting existing buildings [4,5,6] to a level complying with the modern standards in terms of design and operation
Considering the review presented on building energy retrofit tools, the current study presents a tool for Danish building energy retrofit design and assessment, DanRETRO

Summary

Introduction

Buildings consume around 40% of the total energy consumption in the EU and U.S, with an equivalent contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions [1]. The Danish BR standards are a set of directives and requirements for buildings, both newlyconstructed and those about to be renovated These regulations exist to ensure that buildings are at a certain level in terms of energy-efficient design and construction and that they meet the established standards for energy performance. They are part of the building directive set forth by the Danish government as an effort to improve energy efficiency in the existing building stock to reach energy goals for 2050 [8]. One important aspect of the BR is the requirements for the thermal heat transmittance coefficient for different types of building parts. Better insulation in the individual envelope components of buildings is one way of achieving reduction in energy consumption, and the differences in this aspect between older existing buildings and newly-constructed ones that are up to standards is very significant

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