Combining building automation control systems with envelope retrofitting to improve the energy performance of cold climate housing
Doctoral thesis
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2755051Utgivelsesdato
2021Metadata
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Sammendrag
Improving the energy efficiency of buildings by combining envelope and energy systems retrofitting with smart technologies is recommended by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The largest share of the existing building stock consists of residential buildings, so retrofitting these is essential to reduce the energy consumption of the building stock. Retrofitting projects and research studies of dwellings have mainly focused on improving the performance of the thermal envelope and systems, while smart technologies, such as building automation control systems (BACS), are not often used to their full potential. There are only few studies that estimated the potential energy savings from implementing BACS in residential buildings. They demonstrated that significant energy savings were achieved and that the energy label of the building improved. The literature also showed that the effect of BACS was higher when the original delivered energy was higher. Most of these studies focused on warm climates and the knowledge on the impact of BACS as retrofitting measure in cold climates is limited. This thesis evaluates the impact of combining building automation control systems (BACS) with envelope and energy systems retrofitting for residential buildings in Norway.
An analysis of the building stock and of the literature was conducted to investigate the retrofitting status and typical energy consumption of residential buildings in cold European climates and specifically in Norway. Based on this analysis, two typical building typologies that represent a large number of buildings and a large share of the total energy consumption were chosen, i.e. a detached single-family house and an apartment block. Building performance simulation models of these building typologies were created in IDA ICE. The descriptions of BACS measures given in the building automation standard EN 15232 were used to define relevant BACS for the case study buildings. As the standard can be interpreted in different ways, two approaches were used to illustrate the impact of system design and choice of setpoints. The impact of BACS as individual retrofitting measures as well as in combination with building envelope and energy systems retrofitting was assessed. Optimal retrofitting combinations were also found, using IDA ICE with GenOpt. The results were assessed in terms of achieved energy savings, cost-effectiveness and thermal comfort.
It was found that the energy consumption was reduced by up to 24% when BACS were implemented as a retrofitting measure. Heating control strategies had the largest impact on decreasing the energy consumption. The other control strategies did not individually improve the energy performance of the buildings, though most energy savings were achieved when all control strategies (i.e. heating, lighting, ventilation and shading control) were combined. The energy saving potential depends highly on the system design and choice of setpoints. When BACS were combined with envelope and energy systems retrofitting, energy savings up to 57% and 46% were achieved for the detached single-family house and apartment block, respectively. Installing an air source heat pump was the most effective retrofitting measure. Upgrading the heating and lighting control strategies was essential for cost-effective retrofitting. The control strategies for ventilation and blind control did not affect the energy consumption, but the latter improved the thermal comfort by reducing the number of overheating hours. The results showed that BACS had a bigger impact on more compact buildings, such as apartments.
To conclude, BACS has a significant energy saving potential in residential retrofitting projects. The impact of BACS on the energy performance increased when the building was more compact. Its impact was lower than that of building envelope and energy systems retrofitting measures, though large enough to be an attractive retrofitting measure when other measures are challenging. Combining BACS, especially heating and lighting control strategies, with a high-performance building envelope resulted in the highest energy savings and was the most cost-effective. When a deep retrofit of the building envelope is not possible, high-performance BACS are an attractive and profitable retrofitting measure.
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Paper A: Felius, Laurina C; Dessen, Fredrik; Hrynyszyn, Bozena Dorota. Retrofitting towards energy-efficient homes in European cold climates: a review. Energy Efficiency 2019 ;Volum 13.(1) s. 101-125 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-019-09834-7 - Correction to: Retrofitting towards energy-efficient homes in European cold climates: a review https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-019-09838-3Paper B: Felius, Laurina C; Hamdy, Mohamed; Hrynyszyn, Bozena Dorota; Dessen, Fredrik. The impact of building automation control systems as retrofitting measures on the energy efficiency of a typical Norwegian single-family house. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (EES) 2020 ;Volum 410. - Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. (CC-BY) https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/410/1/012054
Paper C: Felius, Laurina C; Hamdy, Mohamed; Dessen, Fredrik; Hrynyszyn, Bozena Dorota. Upgrading the Smartness of Retrofitting Packages Towards Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings in Cold Climate Countries: Two Case Studies. Buildings 2020 ;Volum 10.(11) https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10110200 - This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license