Database of energy, environmental and economic indicators of renovation packages for European residential buildings

Abstract

Increasing the energy efficiency with a vast impact in the residential building stock requires retrofit solutions that can be exploited with respect to a wide range of different building typologies and climates. Several tools and methodologies are nowadays available both for the assessment of building demands and for the individuation of optimum retrofit solutions. However, they are usually either too complex to be adopted by professionals or, on the contrary, oversimplified to account for the full complexity of a deep envelope and HVAC system retrofit.In this context, this paper describes a methodology developed to generate reliable information on retrofit solutions for typical buildings in different climatic conditions. Detailed numerical models are used to simulate a number of combinations of envelope and HVAC systems retrofit measures and renewable energy integration. Energy performance results are gathered in a database that allows comparing solutions, spanning over a range of more than 250,000 combinations of building types, age of construction, climates, envelope performance levels and HVAC systems configurations. Economic feasibility is also derived for each of the combinations.In this way, the accurateness of a detailed and validated calculation is made available to assist during the decision making process, with minimum computational effort being required by professionals: the variety and density of evaluated combinations allows to easily assess the performance of a specific case by interpolating among instances previously assessed. The applicability of the results to different climates and similar building typologies is verified by a comparison of the database results with a specific case dynamic simulation.