Reconciling Energy and Heritage: Retrofit of Heritage Buildings in Contexts of Energy Vulnerability

Abstract

Chile is a resilient country which has been struck by a series of natural disasters, affecting heritage areas whose inhabitants live under a great economic and energy vulnerability. Although there are some advances that have been made in the country to recover its heritage, these do not include energy efficiency parameters. In this context, intervention in heritage properties requires a specific, complementary treatment above and beyond what is currently applied. Consequently, this research aims to develop a methodology that balances heritage and energy in energy vulnerability contexts. The proposed methodology analyzes heritage and energy aspects separately through attribute matrices, as well as the building pathologies, to later integrate the results in a final matrix which allows defining an energy-heritage intervention plan. In this way, it includes the systematic identification of elements that require intervention because of pathological issues, as well as the type of intervention that would be acceptable given its heritage significance and whether they mean a possibility to optimize the energy performance. The methodology, for its validation, was applied in a heritage residential building inhabited by low-income occupants. The case study presents physical damages and is located in the city of Lota, an area with an outstanding cultural heritage from the mining era.

An Integrated SWOT-PESTLE-AHP Model Assessing Sustainability in Adaptive Reuse Projects

“…Thus, seeking new uses for disused constructions undoubtedly promotes minimization of the associated environmental burden [162], helping to achieve sustainability [163]. From the environmental standpoint, adaptive reuse is likely to involve a life cycle extension of resources and materials, resource consumption reduction in terms of material, transportation and energy [164,165], recycling, waste reduction [166][167][168][169], water use reduction, minimization of carbon production, eco-friendly building technologies [170,171], and urban and suburban sprawl prevention [172,173]. However, if a building preserved for a new purpose is not fully compliant with the conservation construction regulations, it may cause occupant dissatisfaction in terms of the indoor environmental conditions [174][175][176].…”

Introductory Review of Energy Efficiency in Buildings Retrofits

“…Piderit, Agurto, and Marín-Restrepo (2019) [3] suggest a pathological diagnosis combined with a different analysis of energy and heritage issues. The authors support that buildings' refurbishment must occur to correct pathologies, which should be ranked by severity and used as a tool to select the most appropriate energy-efficiency measures.…”

“…At least 30% of the built environment in the E.U. consists of historic buildings [3]. Therefore, there has been an increased interest in the definition of methodologies to improve the energy efficiency in existing buildings, especially the historic ones [3].…”

“…consists of historic buildings [3]. Therefore, there has been an increased interest in the definition of methodologies to improve the energy efficiency in existing buildings, especially the historic ones [3]. In fact, the Paris Agreement goals are to reduce global temperature rise below 2 • Celsius above industrial levels this century and to reduce also CO 2 emissions by 80% in 2050 compared to 1990 [2].…”

An IoT-Based Thermoelectric Air Management Framework for Smart Building Applications: A Case Study for Tropical Climate

“…This shows that space cooling is one of the leading sources of energy consumption, and it is predicted that its demand will reach 80% by the year 2030. One of the feasible approaches to improve energy efficiency is to optimize electricity utilization [6,7]. Recent studies pay more attention to the development of an air conditioning system that requires lower operational energy and has a minimal impact on the external environment such as a thermoelectric cooling system [8].…”