Green Renovation and Retrofitting of Old Buildings: A Case Study of a Concrete Brick Apartment in Chengdu

Abstract

With the progress of urbanization in China, the energy-saving renovation of a large number of existing buildings, especially old buildings, has become an important project for the green and low-carbon development of urban renewal. This paper takes the old brick school building in a university in Chengdu as an example. Through field research, the existing problems of the building are analyzed in detail in terms of building function, structure and appearance, and a detailed plan for functional upgrading, structural reinforcement and façade renovation is drawn up, taking into account the actual requirements and environmental status. In addition, solar photovoltaic technology is integrated into the renovation of the building’s pitched roof. Through modelling and analysis, the amount of solar energy captured by the photovoltaic roof is quantitatively simulated and the dynamic energy-saving potential of the renovation project under changing actual meteorological conditions is pre-evaluated. The preliminary results indicate that such green renovations can contribute to about 164,066 kWh annual solar energy collection and the self-use electricity from the PV roof accounts for 42–76% of total energy consumption, leading to about 60% building energy consumption conservation. The payback period of such a renovation program is assessed to be about 1.9 years, which is quite economically feasible considering the local energy tariff policy. This paper explores the feasibility and design direction of green and low-carbon renovation and upgrading of old buildings, which can provide a reference for the application of green and low-carbon renovation of local old buildings.