Economic, environmental and social aspects of buildings’ refurbishment – a case study

Abstract

<jats:p>The aim of the article is to presents the results of calculations regarding the: economic – based on the life cycle costing (LCC) approach, environmental – based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach and social aspects of modeled refurbishment of residential and non-residential stock of buildings. Particular emphasis was placed on the impact of energy efficiency of the modeled buildings on environmental aspects and the selection of renewable and non-renewable energy sources. The article presents an analysis of an area of energy cluster in terms of environmental aspects and a detailed analysis of an offi ce building using advanced energy simulations. The calculations for energy cluster was made using Polish energy certifi cate methodology (monthly calculations) while analysis of an office building was performed using dynamic hourly simulations with use of Energy Plus software. Performed analysis results in reaching energy efficiency scenarios for both cases according to meeting sustain development idea. </jats:p>

Environmental modelling of building stocks – An integrated review of life cycle-based assessment models to support EU policy making

“…Statistical data are utilized for different objectives, e.g., to acquire the national energy consumption of the construction sector [32], to obtain the share of energy carriers in households [27] or to cover heating and domestic hot water demand by type of building and construction period [24]. Statistical data are combined with individual national energy mixes to de ne the energy consumption of each archetype in Lavagna et al [30].…”

“…Statistical data are combined with individual national energy mixes to de ne the energy consumption of each archetype in Lavagna et al [30]. National and international regulations and standards are mostly used as a reference to calculate energy demand through simulations [20,23,25,27,33]. Standards and regulations are considered to develop energy performance scenarios in two studies [24,32].…”

“…Scenarios involving energy e ciency and refurbishments frequently report the potential for improvement in the considered studies. Six studies [16,18,19,26,27,31] go even further by examining exogenous factors driving stock development, such as projected population growth and future evolution of the energy mix or the renovation rate. Seven studies [17,21,25,28,29,32,33,40] furthermore include cost analyses measuring the energy or impact improvements of projects against the payback time, related job creation or investment capacity, which are mentioned as topics for future work in two studies [18,20].…”

“…One way of achieving a higher level of detail is by utilizing digital building stock information tools like GIS or building information modelling (BIM), which are implemented in four studies [17,19,26,36] and stated as a requirement for future research in three more papers [18,36,37]. A higher level of detail is also seen in six studies [18,21,23,27,30,36] considering multiple environmental indicators. This is in contrast to the other studies, which include only CO 2 or GHG emissions, although the reliance on these indicators is criticized internally in some cases [23,25,30].…”