An Evaluation Framework to Support Optimisation of Scenarios for Energy Efficient Retrofitting of Buildings at the District Level

Abstract

Energy-efficient retrofitting of buildings has become essential to achieve the environmental objectives of the European Union’s (EU) strategies towards reducing carbon emissions and energy dependency on fossil fuels. When tackling retrofitting projects, the issue of scale becomes essential as sometimes this can determine the sustainability of the project. Therefore, a comprehensive approach is essential to ensure effective decision-making. A platform has been designed within the EU funded OptEEmAL project to support stakeholders in this process, providing functionalities that can automatically model and evaluate candidate retrofitting alternatives considering their priorities, targets and boundary conditions. A core element of this platform is the evaluation framework deployed which implements a multi-criteria decision-making approach to transform the priorities of stakeholders into quantifiable weights used to compare the alternatives. As a result, more informed decisions can be made by the stakeholders through a comprehensive evaluation of the candidate retrofitting scenarios. This paper presents the approach followed to develop and integrate this evaluation framework within the platform as well as its validation in a controlled environment to ensure its effectiveness.

Intelligent Reasoning Rules for Home Energy Management (IRRHEM): Algeria Case Study

“…It is also a good idea to reduce the heat so that the food is cooked evenly on all sides and the utensils do not burn. Finally, the stove can be turned off a few minutes before the food is fully cooked, as the heat will continue to cook the food for a while after being turned off; It is important to make sure to buy electrical appliances with low power consumption, and they usually carry the consumption class "A" or "A+", because these appliances are energy efficient [18]; Dishwashers use the most energy in a home, so it is important to make sure they are at a full capacity before operating them. It is recommended to not use the hot water cycle and to opt for the cold water cycle.…”

Existing tools enabling the implementation of EN 16883:2017 Standard to integrate conservation-compatible retrofit solutions in historic buildings

“…The heterogeneity of historic buildings, the large variety of technical solutions and the complex interconnections between technical, conservation, economic and legislative factors represent a great challenge implementing energy retrofit projects [8,9,25]. To manage the complexity of taking a decision in this context, several computer-based tools allowing quick comparisons of multiple alternatives have been developed to support the stakeholders [26][27][28]; the scope of computer-based tools is to facilitate a transparent discussion and a better understanding of different valuing processes, providing a framework that unifies different stakeholders' perspectives in strategic decision-making [29]. The literature review on computer-based decision-making tools for sustainable retrofit by [30] categorised tools for energy retrofit as based on energy consumption and CO2 reduction methods, and on purely economic analysis.…”

Integration of Prioritisation Criteria in the Design of Energy Efficient Retrofitting Projects at District Scale: A Case Study

“…The importance of the criteria that forms the evaluation scheme of the tool is essential in order to ensure an appropriate generation and evaluation of candidate retrofitting alternatives, and therefore needs to be correctly formulated. As explained in [26], there are several mechanisms to transform subjective information into weighting schemes that represent the importance of a set of indicators for a given problem. In this case, the pairwise comparison of the indicators is the one selected, which is a relatively unbiased method that applies one value of importance (from 1 to 9) to the indicators by pairs, therefore preferring one indicator over the other.…”