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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Office buildings built before the pre-1960 age constitute a relevant group for analyzing
the energy performance of the Portuguese building sector. A dynamic energy simulation was used
to assess the energy performance of an existing office building located in the town of Bragança,
Portugal. By using a staged renovation approach, two passive technologies applied to the building
envelope and an efficient domestic hot water system were selected and a financial evaluation through
the net saving (NS) method was undertaken to choose the best efficiency measures/packages for
improving the building’s energy performance. Real discount rates of 3% and 1% were used in the
financial evaluation. Considering the real discount rate of 3%, the results showed that only two
out seven retrofit options had a positive financial return. By using the real discount rate of 1%, all
retrofit options were found to be financially efficient. The results of the study corroborated those
of earlier works that found that the financial profitability of energy renovation investments is very
sensitive to the discount rate used in the analysis. The results of the study also suggested that the
staged renovation approach used in the analysis is economically feasible, and that this approach is
an alternative to one-step renovation approach to help to achieve the country´s energy and climate
targets by 2030. Suggestions for future research conducted for office buildings in the different climate
zones and other age groups in Portugal are proposed.
Description
Keywords
Building retrofitting Cost-optimality Dynamic energy simulation Economic assessment Energy performance Staged renovation
Citation
Lopes, Jorge; Oliveira, Rui; Banaitiene, Nerija; Banaitis, Audrius (2021). A staged approach for energy retrofitting an old service building: a cost-optimal assessment. Energies. ISSN 1996-1073. 14:21, p. 1-23