Innovative retrofitting activities for the enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of the total energy consumption in Europe. In order to achieve substantial impact in terms of energy savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, renovation and retrofitting of existing buildings becomes a very important challenge in both domestic and non-domestic building sectors. Retrofitting Solutions and Services for the enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings (RESSEEPE) is an EU funded project which aims to bring together design and decision making tools, innovative building fabric manufacturers and a program to demonstrate the improved building performance achievable through the retrofit of existing buildings at a district level. The RESSEEPE framework is being validated by a strong demonstration programme, envisaging the renovation of 102,000 square metres of public buildings. The core idea of the project is to technically advance, adapt, demonstrate and assess a number of innovative retrofit technologies implemented on several pilot cases with different climate conditions across Europe (Coventry-UK, Barcelona-Spain and Skellefteå-Sweden) to ensure a high potential replication of the retrofit solutions. The three demonstrations sites are involved as the main promoters of a very ambitious district level renovation action to demonstrate a systemic approach to technology installation and evaluation, taking into account the benefits of a set of technologies, which properly combined in terms of cost effectiveness and energy performance could achieve reductions around 50% in terms of energy consumption. This paper is an overview of the process and of the challenges that Coventry University faced in this low carbon refurbishment. The main focus is the prioritization of the buildings to be refurbished and analysis of the processes involved in making refurbishment decisions. The building selection such as the building typology and energy benchmarking is explained. The process of making decisions about procurement, technology and alignment with local strategy is described and evaluated. A systemic process is also being implemented that will allow the selection of the best possible retrofitting mix, customized to the needs of the particular building.

Innovative retrofitting activities for the enhancement of Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307607351_Innovative_retrofitting_activities_for_the_enhancement_of_Energy_Efficiency_in_Public_Buildings [accessed May 8, 2017].