Optimizing Existing Multistory Building Designs towards Net-Zero Energy

Mohammad Y. AbuGrain and Halil Z. Alibaba
Additional contact information
Mohammad Y. AbuGrain: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus, Famagusta, Mersin 10, Turkey
Halil Z. Alibaba: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus, Famagusta, Mersin 10, Turkey

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Recent global developments in awareness and concerns about environmental problems have led to reconsidering built environment approaches and construction techniques. One of the alternatives is the principle of low/zero-energy buildings. This study investigates the potentials of energy savings in an existing multi-story building in the Mediterranean region in order to achieve net-zero energy as a solution to increasing fossil fuel prices. The Colored building at the Faculty of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus was chosen as a target of this study to be investigated and analyzed in order to know how energy efficiency strategies could be applied to the building to reduce annual energy consumption. Since this research objective is to develop a strategy to achieve net-zero energy in existing buildings, case study and problem solving methodologies were applied in this research in order to evaluate the building design in a qualitative manner through observations, in addition to a quantitative method through an energy modeling simulation to achieve desirable results which address the problems. After optimizing the building energy performance, an alternative energy simulation was made of the building in order to make an energy comparison analysis, which leads to reliable conclusions. These methodologies and the strategies used in this research can be applied to similar buildings in order to achieve net-zero energy goals.

Keywords: net-zero energy buildings; existing buildings; energy efficiency strategies; energy modeling simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/399/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/399/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:3:p:399-:d:92446

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().