A Methodology for Integrated Refurbishment Actions in School Buildings

Abstract

Educational buildings could play leading roles in increasing high-performance building refurbishments across Europe. The city of Vienna has substantially modernized its schools in the last decade, however mostly single refurbishment measures have been undertaken. This is missing the potential of comprehensive and more energy-efficient actions as well as functional adaptations, which become ever more important as school and learning systems are changing. Institutional framework conditions, budget constraints as well as the lack of a coherent methodology have been identified as the main barriers in this context. The research question addresses how qualitative aspects, such as architecture and function, as well as quantitative aspects, such as energy consumption, could be combined in a methodology that can be easily applied by relevant stakeholders. What would a methodology that actively supports stakeholders in their decision-making process for more comprehensive school refurbishments look like? This paper describes a potential approach and its application in a case study. The proposed methodology supports the development of energy-and functionally optimized refurbishment concepts, with a focus on the synergies between energy-related optimizations and state-of-the-art functional room concepts in order to do justice to the changing learning requirements in schools.Buildings 2018, 8, 42 2 of 17 now been extended with an increased budget to last until 2022 [5]. Based on these refurbishment actions, there is a significant potential for creating synergies: holistic refurbishment actions could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency as well as adding energy-generation potential by the development of plus-energy buildings.

Extending the Application of the Smart Readiness Indicator—A Methodology for the Quantitative Assessment of the Load Shifting Potential of Smart Districts

“…Following the logic of resource and energy efficient design on a buildings scale [25], the district offers the benefit of the systemic perspective and can subsequently deliver optimization beyond the single entity. Especially when it comes to building renovation, clustering buildings with different thermal qualities and connected energy generation, supply and storage systems can achieve significant primary energy savings with minimal physical intervention compared to the renovation of single entities alone [26].…”

Supporting the Smart Readiness Indicator—A Methodology to Integrate A Quantitative Assessment of the Load Shifting Potential of Smart Buildings

“…The architecture plays a key role in defining the least possible energy demand. Thus demand-side measures are optimized before distribution and supply measures are even considered, resulting in efficient use of resources and adequate application of technical and renewable building energy systems [36]. Whilst Step 1, 2 and 3 are accounted for in the EPCs by calculation the relevant indicators, the last Step 4 encompassing the interaction with the grid has yet to be included in any EPC assessment.…”

“…General methodology: development of building-energy concepts in a 4-step approach, adapted from authors' graphic from[36].Energies 2019, 12, 1955 8 of 22…”