U.S. Building Stock Characterization Study: A National Typology for Decarbonizing U.S. Buildings. Part 1: Residential Buildings

Sustainable approaches for retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency are becoming necessary in a time when the building sector is the largest energy consumer. Retrofitting building stock is effective for reducing global energy consumption and decreasing resource exploitation. Less developed EU member states and neighboring developing countries show reluctance towards healthy and renewable materials. Implementation of sustainable materials for energy retrofitting is slowed down due to gaps in legislation and effective strategic programs, availability of bio-based materials, lack of knowledge regarding use and maintenance of renewable products, and marketing lobbies. Use of bio-based materials in refurbishment is important due to their negative or low global warming potential (GWP), low primary energy (PEI) need for production, cost-effective benefits, and recycling/reuse potential. Role of environmentally friendly solutions and low-carbon economy growth is particularly relevant in developing countries, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, that cannot afford innovative energy recovery systems, yet possess a significant amount of poorly managed building stock. This research aims to analyze frameworks regarding retrofitting of residential buildings in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia. The analysis tackles indirect causes, studies the legal background, and examines strategic frameworks; thus, it indicates potential barriers for implementation of recommended retrofitting solutions based on renewable materials.

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Energy models for cost-optimal analysis: Development and calibration of residential reference building models for Northern Cyprus

Indoor and Built Environment ◽

10.1177/1420326x211013076 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1420326X2110130

Author(s):

Manta Marcelinus Dakyen ◽

Mustafa Dagbasi ◽

Murat Özdenefe

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Mean Squared Error ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Mean Bias Error ◽

Bias Error ◽

Sampled Data ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Building Stock ◽

Northern Cyprus

Ambitious energy efficiency goals constitute an important roadmap towards attaining a low-carbon society. Thus, various building-related stakeholders have introduced regulations targeting the energy efficiency of buildings. However, some countries still lack such policies. This paper is an effort to help bridge this gap for Northern Cyprus, a country devoid of building energy regulations that still experiences electrical energy production and distribution challenges, principally by establishing reference residential buildings which can be the cornerstone for prospective building regulations. Statistical analysis of available building stock data was performed to determine existing residential reference buildings. Five residential reference buildings with distinct configurations that constituted over 75% floor area share of the sampled data emerged, with floor areas varying from 191 to 1006 m2. EnergyPlus models were developed and calibrated for five residential reference buildings against yearly measured electricity consumption. Values of Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Cumulative Variation of Root Mean Squared Error CV(RMSE) between the models’ energy consumption and real energy consumption on monthly based analysis varied within the following ranges: (MBE)monthly from –0.12% to 2.01% and CV(RMSE)monthly from 1.35% to 2.96%. Thermal energy required to maintain the models' setpoint temperatures for cooling and heating varied from 6,134 to 11,451 kWh/year.

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TOPOI RESOURCES: Quantification and Assessment of Global Warming Potential and Land-Uptake of Residential Buildings in Settlement Types along the Urban–Rural Gradient—Opportunities for Sustainable Development

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084099 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4099

Author(s):

Ann-Kristin Mühlbach ◽

Olaf Mumm ◽

Ryan Zeringue ◽

Oskars Redbergs ◽

Elisabeth Endres ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Global Warming ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Global Warming Potential ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Residential Building ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Building Stock ◽

Residential Building Stock ◽

Urban Rural

The METAPOLIS as the polycentric network of urban–rural settlement is undergoing constant transformation and urbanization processes. In particular, the associated imbalance of the shrinkage and growth of different settlement types in relative geographical proximity causes negative effects, such as urban sprawl and the divergence of urban–rural lifestyles with their related resource, land and energy consumption. Implicitly related to these developments, national and global sustainable development goals for the building sector lead to the question of how a region can be assessed without detailed research and surveys to identify critical areas with high potential for sustainable development. In this study, the TOPOI method is used. It classifies settlement units and their interconnections along the urban–rural gradient, in order to quantify and assess the land-uptake and global warming potential driven by residential developments. Applying standard planning parameters in combination with key data from a comprehensive life cycle assessment of the residential building stock, a detailed understanding of different settlement types and their associated resource and energy consumption is achieved.

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RINNO: Towards an Open Renovation Platform for Integrated Design and Delivery of Deep Renovation Projects

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13116018 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 6018

Author(s):

Theo Lynn ◽

Pierangelo Rosati ◽

Antonia Egli ◽

Stelios Krinidis ◽

Komninos Angelakoglou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Value Chain ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Integrated Design ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Building Stock ◽

Existing Building ◽

Horizon 2020 ◽

Regulatory Standards ◽

Automation Systems ◽

Wide Range

The building stock accounts for a significant portion of worldwide energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. While the majority of the existing building stock has poor energy performance, deep renovation efforts are stymied by a wide range of human, technological, organisational and external environment factors across the value chain. A key challenge is integrating appropriate human resources, materials, fabrication, information and automation systems and knowledge management in a proper manner to achieve the required outcomes and meet the relevant regulatory standards, while satisfying a wide range of stakeholders with differing, often conflicting, motivations. RINNO is a Horizon 2020 project that aims to deliver a set of processes that, when working together, provide a system, repository, marketplace and enabling workflow process for managing deep renovation projects from inception to implementation. This paper presents a roadmap for an open renovation platform for managing and delivering deep renovation projects for residential buildings based on seven design principles. We illustrate a preliminary stepwise framework for applying the platform across the full-lifecycle of a deep renovation project. Based on this work, RINNO will develop a new open renovation software platform that will be implemented and evaluated at four pilot sites with varying construction, regulatory, market and climate contexts.

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LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL BUILDING SERVICES OF LARGE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING STOCKS USING SEMANTIC 3D CITY MODELS

ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-annals-vi-4-w1-2020-85-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol VI-4/W1-2020 ◽

pp. 85-92

Author(s):

H. Harter ◽

B. Willenborg ◽

W. Lang ◽

T. H. Kolbe

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Residential Building ◽

Building Stock ◽

3D City Models ◽

Methodical Approach ◽

Operational Energy ◽

City Models

Abstract. Reducing the demand for non-renewable resources and the resulting environmental impact is an objective of sustainable development, to which buildings contribute significantly. In order to realize the goal of reaching a climate-neutral building stock, it must first be analyzed and evaluated in order to develop optimization strategies. The life cycle based consideration and assessment of buildings plays a key role in this process. Approaches and tools already exist for this purpose, but they mainly take the operational energy demand of buildings and not a life cycle based approach into account, especially when assessing technical building services (TBS). Therefore, this paper presents and applies a methodical approach for the life cycle based assessment of the TBS of large residential building stocks, based on semantic 3D city models (CityGML). The methodical approach developed for this purpose describes the procedure for calculating the operational energy demand (already validated) and the heating load of the building, the dimensioning of the TBS components and the calculation of the life cycle assessment. The application of the methodology is illustrated in a case study with over 115,000 residential buildings from Munich, Germany. The study shows that the methodology calculates reliable results and that a significant reduction of the life cycle based energy demand can be achieved by refurbishment measures/scenarios. Nevertheless, the goal of achieving a climate-neutral building stock is a challenge from a life cycle perspective.

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Mapping indoor radon: individual vs. collective hazard

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1018 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Eric Petermann ◽

Peter Bossew

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Gas Permeability ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Indoor Radon ◽

Hazard Index ◽

Air Pollutant ◽

Soil Gas ◽

Exceedance Probability ◽

Hazard Mapping ◽

Building Stock

Indoor radon is considered as an indoor air pollutant due to its carcinogenic effect. Since the main source of indoor radon is the ground beneath the house, we use geogenic Rn as predictor for indoor Rn hazard mapping. In this contribution, we present a model to link geogenic to indoor Rn.In a first step, we build a random forest model that utilizes observational data (n=6,293) of Rn concentration in soil gas and soil gas permeability across Germany in combination with auxiliary data (geology, soil physical and chemical properties, climate) to create spatially continuous map of a geogenic radon hazard index. Then, in a second step, this is geogenic radon hazard index map is linked to indoor radon data (n=44,629) via a logistic regression model for calculating the probabilities that indoor Rn exceeds 300 Bq/m&#179;. The estimated probability was averaged for every municipality by considering only the estimates within the built-up area. Finally, the mean exceedance probability per municipality was coupled with the respective residential building stock for estimating the number of residential buildings with indoor Rn above 300 Bq/m&#179; for each municipality.We found that (1) the municipal-scale maps of 300 Bq/m&#179; exceedance probability (individual hazard) and affected residential buildings (collective hazard) show contrasting spatial patterns, (2) the estimated number of buildings above 300 Bq/m&#179; in Germany is 345,000 (1.9 % of all residential buildings), (3) areas where 300 Bq/m&#179; exceedance is greater than 10 % comprise only 0.8 % of the German building stock but 6.3 % of buildings with indoor Rn exceeding 300 Bq/m&#179;, and (4) most urban areas and most high-radon residential buildings (77 %) are located in low hazard regions.The implications for Rn protection are twofold: (1) the Rn priority area concept is cost-efficient in a sense that it allows to find the most buildings that exceed a threshold concentration with a given amount of resources, and (2) for an optimal reduction of lung cancer risk areas outside of Rn priority areas must be addressed since most hazardous indoor Rn concentrations occur in low to medium hazard areas.

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Improving Post-Earthquake Building Safety Evaluation using the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, Earthquake Rapid Visual Damage Assessment Data

Earthquake Spectra ◽

10.1193/112916eqs210m ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 33 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. 415-438 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Max Didier ◽

Salome Baumberger ◽

Roman Tobler ◽

Simona Esposito ◽

Siddhartha Ghosh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Damage Assessment ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Fragility Curves ◽

Safety Evaluation ◽

Residential Building ◽

Building Stock ◽

Data Set ◽

Visual Damage ◽

2015 Gorkha Earthquake ◽

Building Safety

A Rapid Visual Damage Assessment was initiated in the direct aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake to assess the safety and damage of residential buildings in the areas affected by the earthquake. Over 30,000 paper assessment forms have been subsequently digitized. The collected data set allows comparison of the observed damage to the residential building stock to the damage expected using existing fragility curves. Under certain conditions and respecting certain limitations, the post-earthquake building safety and damage data can be used to update the existing fragility functions for the Nepalese building stock. Recommendations are made for the improvement of post-earthquake building safety assessments in Nepal in order to: (1) make data collection more consistent, (2) increase the accuracy of the collected data, and (3) make more effective use of the collected data after future earthquakes.

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Accelerating Energy Renovation Solution for Zero Energy Buildings and Neighbourhoods—The Experience of the RenoZEB Project

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2019020001 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michele Vavallo ◽

Marco Arnesano ◽

Gian Marco Revel ◽

Asier Mediavilla ◽

Ane Ferreiro Sistiaga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Residential Buildings ◽

Energy Performance ◽

European Level ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Building Stock ◽

Existing Building ◽

A Value ◽

Key Factor ◽

New Buildings

Buildings are the key factor to transform cities and to contribute to recent European energy efficiency objectives for 2030 and long-term 2050. New buildings account to only 1–2% annually. Yet, ninety percent of the existing building stock in Europe was built before 1990, it is therefore necessary to promote their energy renovation to achieve the set objectives. Renovation solutions are available on the market, yet a wrong implementation and integration due to a lack of knowledge neither maximizes the energy performance of the post-retrofitting nor the financial optimisation and viability of the projects. This paper presents research on a plug & play, modular, easy installable façade and ICT decision making technologies to provide affordable solutions in order to overcome those deep renovation barriers. The paper sets out by defining a value framework that can be applied by real estate investors for making better retrofitting decisions for residential buildings, through mapping targeted building typologies and investigating new building revalorisation strategies, new renovation concepts and KPIs for evaluation. Thereafter the paper presents the modular and easy-to-install façade system that is replicable and scalable at European level.

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Examining the Transition towards the Supply of Sustainable Apartments in Australia: A Design Perspective

Environmental Sciences Proceedings ◽

10.3390/environsciproc2021012003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 3

Author(s):

Gloria Pignatta ◽

Kushani Semasinghe

Keyword(s):

Residential Buildings ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Green Buildings ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Negative Effects ◽

Building Stock ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Design Perspective ◽

Barriers And Opportunities ◽

Apartment Industry

The built environment in Australia accounts for about 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), where only the multi-unit residential buildings account for a quarter of these emissions. Moving towards sustainable constructions and green buildings can help in reducing GHG emissions and their negative effects. In this context, integrating Circular Economy (CE) principles into buildings’ projects can further help in reducing the environmental impact of the building stock. The purpose of this research is to explore the embracing of CE in the apartment industry. Personal experiences and perspectives of 5 stakeholders from Vitoria and NSW involving sustainable new and retrofit apartment buildings are investigated by drawing on the results of the semi-structured interview. Results underlined barriers and opportunities for designing sustainable apartments.

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PREFABRICATED TIMBER PANELS APPLICATION POSSIBILITIES FOR THE ENERGY REFURBISHMENT OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS ENVELOPE IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND SLOVENIA

САВРЕМЕНА ТЕОРИЈА И ПРАКСА У ГРАДИТЕЉСТВУ ◽

10.7251/stp2014224g ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Darija Gajić ◽

Anna Sandak ◽

Slobodan Peulić ◽

Črtomir Tavzes ◽

Tim Mavrič

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Residential Building ◽

Building Envelope ◽

Hvac System ◽

The European Union ◽

Renewable Materials ◽

Building Stock ◽

Existing Building ◽

Residential Building Stock

System of prefabricated modules installed on the existing building envelope is one alternativesolution for deep energy refurbishment of buildings in the European Union. It allows thermalupgrade installation of new parts in the HVAC system. Moreover, some elements of the envelopecan be made of renewable materials. This research compares the residential building stock andidentifies potential types of buildings for energy refurbishment in Bosnia and Herzegovina andSlovenia. It presents refurbishment possibilities of existing residential building stock in bothcountries with prefabricated timber panels. It also presents potential obstacles to the widerapplication of this refurbishment solution.

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