Improving the Design of Energy-Efficient Building Retrofitting: Design Guidelines, Energy Simulations, and Selecting of Technologies

Practical guidelines are presented for improved process for design and retrofitting of energy-efficient buildings, with an aim to integrate buildings better with the neighbourhood energy system, among others through energy matching. The chapter describes the role of energy simulations in an integrated building retrofitting process and how to select technologies for the retrofitting toward nearly zero energy building level. Feasibility of performing a holistic analysis of retrofitting options can be increased through the integration of BIM, well populated, and linked databases and a multi-criteria decision-making approach.
Multiple-criteria decision-making methods aid taking into account a number of building energy performance and user-preference-related criteria and the trade-offs between the different criteria for each retrofitting option. The real-life viewpoints and benefits of utilising the developed methods and processes are discussed, especially from the Eastern European view.