Multi-criteria assessment approach for a residential building retrofit in Norway

Abstract

This paper presents a multi-criteria assessment approach for a wide range of energy efficient measures and their combinations applied for a residential building retrofit in Norway.A number of passive, active and renewable energy efficient measures (EEMs) have been selected and defined. Based on the level of energy saving potentials, these EEMs have been combined into 18 retrofit combination packages (COMBs) and grouped into various retrofit levels (Moderate Retrofit-I, II, III and Extensive Retrofit). The annual primary energy consumptions (heating, hot water and electricity) for the proposed combination packages were simulated in IESVE building energy simulation software. This is then followed by two levels of assessments: i) the comprehensive assessments of the key retrofit priorities including primary energy reduction, global costs, payback period and the carbon emission reduction and ii) social assessment with the aim to represent various stakeholders' views on the selected COMBs using a metric of weighting factors. Based on this, a multi-criteria assessment approach featuring a novel ranking factor (EEES) taking into account of energy, economic, environmental and social aspects during retrofit process was adopted. This approach quantifies different stakeholders' perspectives on the proposed COMBs, which could enable various stakeholders' involvement in the retrofit decision making process. It was concluded that COMB 05 and 06, which include only 2-3 passive and active EEMs have been ranked and chosen as the most favourable retrofit solutions, with EEES value equalled to 25.6 from various stakeholders' perspectives. The impacts of changing renewable energy prices and PV generated feed-in tariff rates on the global costs, carbon reductions and primary energy consumptions of the proposed COMBs, which have rarely been analysed in literature, are numerically investigated in this research. Such renewable EEMs which are greatly recommended by the European Commission, are expected to gain further support from national level government renewable incentives. Therefore, it is envisaged that in the long term, Extensive Retrofits incorporating mostly renewable EEMs could become more affordable and cost effective.

A target-driven decision-making multi-layered approach for optimal building retrofits via agglomerative hierarchical clustering: A case study in China

“…However, given the relevance of the solar/PV system as a relatively low-cost RES with a substantial reducing potential of environmental impact, this system is incorporated into all possible combinations. Therefore, 2 11 (2,048) possible combinations are considered in this study. The generated LCC profiles for LOP1, LOP2, LOP3 and LOP4 correspond with the trendline with an R 2 value of 0.8351, 0.7758, 0.8726, and 0.9053, respectively.…”

“…In this approach, the universal concept of optimising the energy, environmental and economic (3E) variables is emphasised to promote the interpretability, applicability and comparability between outcomes [1,9,10]. Social variables of building retrofits, such as the best possible compromise to enhance thermal comfort and indoor air quality, are also commonly considered [8,11,12].…”

Uptake and Dissemination of Multi-Criteria Decision Support Methods in Civil Engineering—Lessons from the Literature

“…Simple additive weighting (SAW) was used in the selection from retrofit options for buildings in Norway using seven criteria (energy reduction, costs, payback period, CO 2 reduction, disturbance, indoor air quality, and aesthetics). That study took account of the different priorities of the occupants of the buildings, landlords and local government, with occupants' preferences different from the other two groups [137]. An interactive system for decision making for retrofitting, based on the "CommunityViz" ARCGIS extension (https://communityviz.city-explained.com/index.html) (accessed on 24 March 2021) was described by [138].…”

CO2 Intensities and Primary Energy Factors in the Future European Electricity System

“…Across the academic literature, conversion factors are used in a variety of applications. Most frequently, they are used to evaluate various building renovation scenarios or design options for newly-built projects [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. In these cases, the primary energy use and CO 2 emissions are calculated for certain renovation measures or building designs.…”