Identify Optimal Renovation Packages for Residential Buildings: A State-of-the-Art Computational Model

Renovating the existing building stock has a significant potential to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the European Union. However, a common European renovation project focuses primarily on improving the thermal performance of the building shell by adding insulation to the opaque surfaces and improve the thermal performance of the windows. The potentially positive contribution of renewable energies (RE) in balance with energy efficiency measures is often underestimated. Consequently, a more holistic approach can contribute to a reduction in total net energy demand up to 40-45% for the entire buildings sector. Thus, in order to achieve the goal of GHG emission reduction in an economic most responsible way, the share of RE in a renovation project needs to be increased. However, building renovation projects are becoming - apparently - more complicated if more factors are considered in the planning of a renovation project. Thus, a computational tool for evaluating hundreds of different renovation options, including the implementations of renewable energy resources, to obtain an optimal or nearly optimal set of renovation options is essential. Therefore, a novel planning tool has been developed within the framework of DREEAM project, a project funded by the European Union within the Horizon 2020 research framework. The DREEAM-Tool has been designed in the way that it helps designers and other stakeholders to plan a renovation project of a single building or even on a multi-building scale. The tool was built in the way to optimize the renovation project taking into consideration the most critical factors in planning and decision-making processes, such as the economic or environmental performance. In other words, the tool combines an energy calculation model for a building or multiple building with an economic and environmental assessment to identify and optimize the most beneficial refurbishment solutions. The current study presents the concept of the DREEAM-Tool and shows examples of how the optimal renovation packages of a considered building will be determined and how this will support designers or buildings owners in decision-making processes