Toward a Fast but Reliable Energy Performance Evaluation Method for Existing Residential Building Stock

Stefano Converso (), Paolo Civiero, Stefano Ciprigno, Ivana Veselinova and Saffa Riffat
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Stefano Converso: Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University, Via Ostiense, 133B, 00154 Rome, Italy
Paolo Civiero: Department of Architecture, Roma Tre University, Via Ostiense, 133B, 00154 Rome, Italy
Stefano Ciprigno: Innovation Lab, RIMOND, Via Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, 81, 00153 Rome, Italy
Ivana Veselinova: Innovation Lab, RIMOND, Via Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, 81, 00153 Rome, Italy
Saffa Riffat: Buildings, Energy and Environment Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-24

Abstract: Building a reliable energy model for old residential buildings with insufficient documentation and user assistance is a challenging and time-consuming task. Nevertheless, the ambitious European decarbonization targets require this building stock to be renovated, making energy assessment a key priority. In line with this goal, the following study explores a more simplified and automatic framework to generate a residential building energy model (BEM). The paper’s approach is based on the concept of urban building energy modelling (UBEM) archetypes or building prototypes and is customized according to the principles of dynamic simulations performed in the existing BEM software, Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment IES VE, and Solemma Open Studio. Therefore, based on three real starting inputs, a prototype database (DB) of assigned inputs is generated, i.e., an input matrix, using Google Maps as a geometry source. Other data are drawn from tabular DB. The proposed approach is evaluated by benchmarking the simulation results with precise models and monitoring the data that come from the Horizon2020 project REZBUILD. Nevertheless, a level of simplification is introduced that creates less accurate results for total or system-level energy consumption; this is compensated for using a set of simple calibration steps. The approach gives promising results for daily indoor temperature, making it a suitable indicator for evaluating further retrofitting alternatives.

Keywords: decarbonization targets; old residential buildings; energy assessment; BEM input database; dynamic simulations; tabular data; Google Maps geometry extraction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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