Cost-optimal design for nearly zero energy office buildings located in warm climates

Congedo, Paolo Maria; Baglivo, Cristina; D’Agostino, Delia; Zacà, Ilaria

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.08.078

Cited by 109 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In previous studies [15,16], the authors of this research investigate new mono and multi residential buildings as well as office buildings located in the Mediterranean climate [17]. The research showed that cost-optimal solutions reduce primary energy consumption between 68% and 95% compared with the reference scenario.…”

Section: Cost-optimal Studies Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Solutions and Cost-Optimal Analysis for Existing School Buildings

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:The recast of the energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD) describes a comparative methodological framework to promote energy efficiency and establish minimum energy performance requirements in buildings at the lowest costs. The aim of the cost-optimal methodology is to foster the achievement of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs), the new target for all new buildings by 2020, characterized by a high performance with a low energy requirement almost covered by renewable sources. The paper presents the results of the application of the cost-optimal methodology in two existing buildings located in the Mediterranean area. These buildings are a kindergarten and a nursery school that differ in construction period, materials and systems. Several combinations of measures have been applied to derive cost-effective efficient solutions for retrofitting. The cost-optimal level has been identified for each building and the best performing solutions have been selected considering both a financial and a macroeconomic analysis. The results illustrate the suitability of the methodology to assess cost-optimality and energy efficiency in school building refurbishment. The research shows the variants providing the most cost-effective balance between costs and energy saving. The cost-optimal solution reduces primary energy consumption by 85% and gas emissions by 82%-83% in each reference building.

show abstract

Section: Cost-optimal Studies Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Solutions and Cost-Optimal Analysis for Existing School Buildings

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In terms of scale, we observe that a majority of applications of the methodology have been at the building or component scale, especially to compare different constructive solutions and construction materials or to optimize the insulation thicknesses of the building envelope [8,12,32,33,[37][38][39][40][41][42]. When at the building scale, studies typically consider only one specific typology for a given period of time or year (e.g.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of the cost-optimal methodology to urban renewal projects at the territorial scale based on statistical data—A case study in Spain

Moreno

Lufkin

Rey

et al. 2017

Energy and Buildings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As tomorrow's cities are already largely built, many strategies stress the importance of urban renewal processes to address current energy issues. This paper focuses on the Spanish residential building stock built until 2001, which has a low level of energy performance.Considering the current economic crisis, the future lies in renovating the built environment, which holds a significant energy-saving potential. This potential is here quantified by applying the cost-optimal methodology, initially proposed by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and which calculates costoptimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements at the building and component scale.The originality of our study lies in the application of this methodology at the territorial scale, comparing different retrofitting scenarios by scaling-up building-scale results through an archetypal approach. We also describe an Excel-based tool allowing two types of studies: (i) at the building scale, for one archetype in a particular climatic zone; (ii) at the territorial scale, to have an overview of all building archetypes and climatic zones simultaneously. Results include economic aspects, energy consumption and savings and associated emissions.The outcome can help construction-sector firms adapt their business plan, while also providing stakeholders with decision-support to promote a sustainable renewal of the building stock.

show abstract

“…Many of these studies aim at identifying the best combination in a building design in terms of costs, energy consumption and economic feasibility [56,57]. For example, studies on envelope, fenestration and technical systems have been carried out [58][59][60], proving that the combinations with high mass result the best solutions in terms of internal comfort and cost for warm climate. Valdiserri et al [61] show through retrofitting actions and economic assessment of an existing office building that the replacement of the windows results unprofitable.…”

Section: Comfort Assessment and Thermal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Envelope Design Optimization by Thermal Modelling of a Building in a Warm Climate

Baglivo

Congedo

Cataldo³

et al. 2017

Energies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Finding the most appropriate configuration of building components at the design stage can reduce energy consumption in new buildings. This study aims to optimize the design of the envelope of a new residential building located in a warm climate (southern Italy). The thermal behaviour of the building has been analysed to evaluate the indoor operative air temperature for several configurations. The building prototype has been modelled using the dynamic simulation software TRNSYS 17 (A transient system simulation program, University of Wisconsin, Solar Energy Laboratory, USA, 2010) using a sequential search technique. Starting from the simplest building configuration, the main evaluated components are: walls, slab-on-ground floor, roof, shading, windows and internal heat loads. For each of these components, different design options have been modelled and compared in terms of indoor thermal comfort. Comfort parameters have also been taken into account to evaluate users' satisfaction with the optimized configurations. The study of the operative air temperature demonstrates that the absence of insulating layers in the ground floor ensures a lower internal temperature in summer. The paper shows how each component impacts the thermal behaviour of the whole building. It highlights the usefulness of the envelope design optimization that is characterized by high values of heat storage capacity, enabling internal temperature fluctuations to be kept under control, especially during summer.Keywords: envelope; optimization; building; TRNSYS; operative air temperature; warm climate; comfort HIGHLIGHTS:•The envelope design of a residential building has been optimized for a warm climate.• Several envelope design options have been evaluated and compared.• Walls with a high internal areal heat capacity are preferable in a warm climate. •The absence of insulating layers on slab-on-ground floor provides lower temperature in summer.• Low emissivity glass and low solar absorbance roof reduce heat loads.

show abstract

Cost-optimal design for nearly zero energy office buildings located in warm climates

Cited by 109 publications

References 29 publications

Efficient Solutions and Cost-Optimal Analysis for Existing School Buildings

Efficient Solutions and Cost-Optimal Analysis for Existing School Buildings

Application of the cost-optimal methodology to urban renewal projects at the territorial scale based on statistical data—A case study in Spain

Envelope Design Optimization by Thermal Modelling of a Building in a Warm Climate

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About