Triantafyllia Nikolaou

Review on methodologies for energy benchmarking, rating and classification of buildings

The energy benchmarking, rating and classification of buildings are necessary procedures for energy certification scheme adoption, energy regulation establishment, energy-efficiency promotion and energy consumption reduction, according to the Directive 2002/91/EC and its implementation in EU member states. The aim of this paper is to investigate and present research works, tools and programs focused on energy benchmarking methods, energy rating procedures and classification schemes for the building sector. The European Committee for Standardization method of benchmarking and rating for buildings are analyzed, as well as a proposed integrated classification method based on the application of clustering techniques to virtual building data sets of office buildings in Greece.

Asset and operational benchmarking for office buildings in Greece

The aim of this paper is to compare the asset and operational rating of buildings by the creation of a thermal model in TRNSYS 16 in order to simulate the thermal behaviour of a multi-storey (seven floors) office building that belongs to BYTE Computer S.A. located in Athens, Greece. Then based on the validated building model, the generalisation of this method is investigated for the creation of a virtual database for office building energy benchmarking in Greece. The data collected for the case-study building are based on engineering plans and studies, on in-situ measurements and mainly on the building management system (BMS) already implemented in the building. The building is modelled in detail by splitting it into 45 thermal zones. The simulation results are compared with the measured values provided by the BMS for two periods (winter and summer). The processing of the results leads to conclusions regarding the reliability of the model, the accuracy of asset rating compared to operational rating, as well as its usefulness in evaluating building retrofitting scenarios and its application as a general energy audit model for office buildings in Greece.

Review and State of the Art on Methodologies of Buildings’ Energy-Efficiency Classification

The aim of this chapter is the analysis and the evaluation of the relevant research in the field of building energy classification. The literature review comprises studies of the last 40 years (post 1970). The review begins with the studies of building energy benchmarking methods and their categories according to the energy performance indicator they use, the statistical analysis and the distribution they are based on, the parameters that have to be taken into account and their final purpose. The review continues with the researches dealing with energy and environmental rating and labeling methods, focusing on the methods proposed by the CEN Standards. In the last part of the literature review, some significant researches that investigate the integrated classification methods including the building energy database, the benchmarking method, the building energy performance evaluation, and the energy boundaries (classes) definition are presented and analyzed. By summarizing the research work performed so far in the buildings’ classification sector, the authors reveal the crucial points and analyze the statement of the problem of this book research.

Office Building Simulation Models and Simplified Audits

This chapter presents a simulation model of an office building, that it is created in order to evaluate the energy performance and the indoor thermal comfort at hourly and yearly base of any case study office building. With the aim to collect information about the characteristics of the Greek office building sector and to test the adopted simulation model, simple audits were conducted by the authors. The outcomes of these audits are presented in the last part of the chapter.

Protocol of Alternative Measures for Buildings’ Energy Efficiency Improvement

This chapter introduces alternative measures for buildings’ efficiency improvement that combine indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and energy savings. The chapter includes the mathematical principles, the proposed methods, and the specific scenarios.

Detailed Audit and Detailed Case-Study Building Model: Virtual Building Dataset (VBD) for Benchmarking and Classification of Office Buildings

The fourth chapter consists of two parts. The first part describes a detailed energy audit and a detailed simulation model, based on a Building Energy Management System (BEMS) installed in an office building and on measured hourly values of energy and indoor environment parameters. The aim of the second part of this chapter is to present the development of a Virtual Building Dataset (VBD) of office buildings as an innovative benchmarking and classification tool. The proposed methodology overcomes the difficulties and time required for collecting the necessary massive building constructional and energy bills data, which is a cumbersome and time-consuming work, by creating them virtually using efficient stochastic simulation (uniform stochastic distribution), by taking into account all parameters that may affect the energy performance and indoor thermal comfort of office buildings. The VBD tool provides flexibility and expandability on building datasets’ characteristics, sample size and climatic conditions according to the relevant research scope. The large number of the developed data can also be used for sensitivity analysis, neural network training, as well as for any process that demands a significant number of building data.

Environmental Rating of Buildings

The chapter analyzes and presents an environmental rating method for buildings that is based on Leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) methodology, which is the official environmental rating method of buildings first developed and applied in USA. The methodology is correlated to the deliverables concerning the energy classification of buildings and their environmental rating factors. It is shown the procedure to adapt the LEED methodology in each specific building case study.

Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment

In this chapter, the authors present the measures, equipments, appliances, and intelligent management—monitoring systems for buildings’ energy and environmental improvement. The analysis includes the latest methods of passive retrofits, such as passive solar heating, passive cooling, cool roofs, cool materials, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods in buildings.