Retrofitting Strategies Based on Orthogonal Array Testing to Develop Nearly Zero Energy Buildings

Pengying Wang and Shuo Zhang
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Pengying Wang: College of Engineering and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China
Shuo Zhang: College of Engineering and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: Retrofitting existing buildings to be a nearly zero energy building (nZEB) is an effective solution for greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy consumption reduction. A hybrid approach that integrates the building energy simulation method and orthogonal array testing (OAT) to renovate buildings to nZEB is proposed in this paper. Within a residential building in Changchun, Jilin of China, the total energy consumption index (TECI) and CO 2 emission factor for heating are used as evaluation criteria. The reliability of the building energy model is validated and adopted to forecast the energy performance of different building renovation strategies. According to OAT, four passive measures can be ranked by their influence on TECI in descending order as follows: external wall heat transfer coefficient, airtightness, window heat transfer coefficient, and roof heat transfer coefficient. The optimal renovation solution of the studied building can reduce the TECI by 43.18% by only reducing the external wall heat transfer coefficient from 0.5 to 0.2 W/m 2 ·K and the infiltration N 50 from 3.6 to 0.4 ac/h. Besides, combined heat and power (CHP) utilities emit less CO 2 than heat pumps in providing heating under the current CO 2 emission factor of the power grid in China, making it impossible to give up district heating systems until carbon emissions of electricity generation have declined significantly. The results can provide a reference for the application of the nZEB standard in actual retrofitting projects.

Keywords: orthogonal array testing; building retrofit; nearly zero energy building; residential building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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