Identification of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects in Northern China

Qi, Yuting; Qian, Queena K.; Meijer, F.M.; Visscher, Henk

doi:10.3390/su11154203

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 59 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On the other hand, too many selection criteria makes analysis difficult [17] for practitioners and consultants. Qi [18] showed that quality control during the renovation preparation stage is critical to ensure that quality failures are reduced in numbers and severity. In the changing climate conditions, it means that the market participants must find efficient ways to improve the quality of design and installation to meet increasing requirements of energy and hygrothermal performance of new and existing buildings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Performance Assessment of Prefabricated Insulation Elements for Deep Energy Renovation of Apartment Buildings

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A need for the refurbishment and renewal of the existing building stock has been in focus for many decades, principally because of excessive global energy consumption and pollution. This paper presents a methodology and the results of analysis of choices of realizable sets of timber frame prefabricated insulation elements for major renovation of apartment buildings. Numerous combinations of elements with different characteristics were analyzed by applying measurements, interviews, and building performance simulation software, and thereupon their performance, installation eligibility, and concurrent cost levels were compared. Mineral wool board with a special wind barrier facing was found to be the best material as a wind barrier from the perspective of hygrothermal performance. An air and vapor barrier should have sufficient vapor permeability to allow dry-out of constructional moisture. It is possible to renovate apartment buildings to meet the nZEB energy performance requirements and their moisture safety can be guaranteed without paying high relative difference cost. Calculations showed that the global cost was lower for solutions with some mold growth risk. Great care is needed when decreasing costs without simultaneous hygrothermal analyses. The facade cladding was found to have the highest influence on the initial cost of the prefabricated insulation element.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Performance Assessment of Prefabricated Insulation Elements for Deep Energy Renovation of Apartment Buildings

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the case of energy renovation, three main constructive elements of the building are considered: Openings (doors and windows), roofs, and external walls. The work in [39,40] includes technical specifications linked to each of these elements: Actions related to the replacement of doors and windows consist in guaranteeing some values for the heat-transfer coefficient and the air ventilation rate; in the case of thermal insulation of roofs, control on the kind of material, bulk density, heat-transfer coefficient, thermal conductivity of the insulation, tensile/compressive strength and dimensional stability; finally, for the thermal insulation of exterior walls, similar actions to those of roof insulation are required, by checking the kind of material, bulk density, heat-transfer coefficient, thermal conductivity of the insulation, tensile/compressive strength and dimensional stability.…”

Section: Existing Pathology Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Machine Learning for the Improvement of Deep Renovation Building Projects Using As-Built BIM Models

Mulero-Palencia¹,

Álvarez²,

Chicote³

2021

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, are emerging to improve decision making based on learning. Their use applied to the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector, together with the increased use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology in all phases of a building’s life cycle, is opening up a wide range of opportunities in the sector. At the same time, the need to reduce CO2 emissions in cities is focusing on the energy renovation of existing buildings, thus tackling one of the main causes of these emissions. This paper shows the potentials, constraints and viable solutions of the use of Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence approaches at the design stage of deep renovation building projects using As-Built BIM models as input to improve the decision-making process towards the uptake of energy efficiency measures. First, existing databases on buildings pathologies have been studied. Second, a Machine Learning based algorithm has been designed as a prototype diagnosis tool. It determines the critical areas to be solved through deep renovation projects by analysing BIM data according to the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC4) standard and proposing the most convenient renovation alternative (based on a catalogue of Energy Conservation Measures). Finally, the proposed diagnosis tool has been applied to a reference test building for different locations. The comparison shows how significant differences appear in the results depending on the situation of the building and the regulatory requirements to which it must be subjected.

show abstract

“…Jha and Iyer [30] defined quality as "compliance with customer's specifications and customer's expectations". As defined by Qi et al [7], the definition of quality in construction projects is to meet the technical requirements of regulatory agencies.…”

Section: Quality and Quality Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, doors, windows, roofs, and external walls are renovated. However, various quality failures have happened and resulted in construction repair and even rework [6,7]. Additionally, some quality failures were repeated in building energy renovation projects [8,9], which caused losses for stakeholders [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These quality failures hinder energy efficiency during the construction and even usage processes of building energy renovation projects [12]. Moreover, due to quality failures, a tremendous amount of energy is wasted annually in construction and usage processes, and hereby the high-quality performance of the constructions can reduce energy wastage [7]. According to Forcada et al's studies, due to quality failures, a majority of the existing buildings that have been energy renovated do not save as much energy as the designs have predicted [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Causes of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects of Northern China: A Review and Empirical Study

Qian

Meijer

et al. 2020

Energies

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Building energy renovations can effectively improve the environmental performance and energy sustainability of existing buildings. From 2007 onwards, the Chinese government has promoted energy-saving renovations of existing urban residential buildings. Nevertheless, various quality failures happen during the construction period in energy-saving renovation projects of residential buildings. Yet, the causes and their characters remain largely unknown. Through a literature review, this paper investigates the causes of quality failures. Validated through experts’ interviews, a total of 18 causes were identified in building energy renovation projects. These causes were analyzed from two main aspects: the importance of a cause (related to impact and frequency), and the level of effort required to address a cause (related to origin and scale), using both a questionnaire survey and a focus group. The results indicate that the critical causes of quality failures are working under high-cost and high-time pressure, adverse natural conditions, fraud of construction companies, incomplete construction site survey, poor checking procedures of supervisors, poor operational skilled workers, inadequate equipment performance, lack of experienced project managers, and incomplete building information in projects. The causes were classified as external and internal causes of building energy renovation projects. The outcome of this paper should aid policy makers and project coordinators to focus on critical causes of quality failures, and to develop effective actions and policy interventions to achieve successful renovation projects with high-quality performance.

show abstract

Identification of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects in Northern China

Cited by 14 publications

References 59 publications

Development and Performance Assessment of Prefabricated Insulation Elements for Deep Energy Renovation of Apartment Buildings

Development and Performance Assessment of Prefabricated Insulation Elements for Deep Energy Renovation of Apartment Buildings

Machine Learning for the Improvement of Deep Renovation Building Projects Using As-Built BIM Models

Causes of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects of Northern China: A Review and Empirical Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About