Decision Support for existing buildings: an LCC-based proposal for facade retrofitting technological choices

Abstract

Abstract The goal of this paper is to present a usable and effective tool to evaluate residential façade retrofitting solutions in early stages of design, keeping into account envelope features and installation issues. Decarbonisation goals set for 2050 impose existing building stock renovation and energy retrofit. Several drivers are available in EU Countries to trigger these operations. Nonetheless, the renovation rate in EU Member States remains low: barriers to building retrofit are identified, and a main issue in this sense is the lack of use of Decision Support Systems. DSS exist but are often neglected by building designers or owners, due to different reasons. Existing methodologies do not take into account the quantity and quality of information available at the various stages of building life cycle; furthermore, they mainly focus on energy related aspects, neglecting technological and installation related factors. This paper aims at providing an LCC-based decision framework to help decision makers in early stages of design to choose the most suitable technology for building façade retrofitting. A Utility Function expressing LCC for residential building renovation is provided, focusing on façades renovation and on installation and morphology related aspects. Information and data flow through the phases is presented and discussed, showing how the proposed method can be adapted to different stages, and testing its robustness through sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Three main categories of renovation technologies are analysed (ventilated façade, ETICS, and prefabricated solutions). The proposed method is applied to a residential case study building. The adaptability of the tool to different stages of design is discussed, and further potential applications are presented.