Paving the Way Towards the Building Renovation Wider Benefits: Energy Poverty Case
Abad Cano, R. – International Greencities Congress proceedings, 2021
Abstract
A building renovation design is the first phase done before the actual building renovation execution. During such design phase, benefits like energy savings and operational cost savings, etc., have been traditionally considered to allow the building property taking a decision on the renovation execution. In the future, a list of Wider Benefits will be also considered in order to assess the impact of building renovation in our society and environment. Some examples of such Wider Benefits are the following ones: avoidance or mitigation of poverty situations, deaths and diseases reduction, jobs creation, CO2 avoided emissions, etc. In this paper we have chosen one concrete wider benefit, “avoidance or mitigation of poverty situations” and we have studied the limitations in legislation and recommendations related with Energy Efficiency (EE) in order to achieve it. Understanding the limitations of the current legislations and recommendations to achieve the Wider Benefits, the administrations will be able to fix such limitations, and therefore pave the way to achieve the Wider Benefits.
Toftum, J., Andersen, R.K., Prado, J.J.A., Kolstrup, K., Hauberg, D.S., Clausen, G., – Energy & Buildings, 2021,
DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111274
Abstract
A simplified modelling framework for the prediction of the indoor environment, energy use and socio-economic consequences of improving air quality and temperature in school buildings is suggested. The framework combines established models for infiltration and different modes of ventilation to estimate yearly distributions of the classroom temperature and CO2 concentration. These distributions are used as input to a prediction of pupil performance of schoolwork, their attendance at school, and teacher absence before and after refurbishment of their school building. Eventually, the framework estimates the socio-economic consequences of an improved classroom environment for a school and may be used to evaluate the feasibility of a range of different refurbishment scenarios and support decisions on building upgrades.
Abad Cano, R.; Garzarán Fernández, L.; Vargas Yáñez, A. – Travesías Journal, 2020 (Volume 3)
Abstract
In the scope of the study on the broad benefits that a policy of rehabilitation and modernization of the built park can bring, the EERAdata project, in which the College of Architects of Malaga participates as an entity expert in the constructive process and link with the profession, society and public administration, the aim is to develop a methodology and a SW application that helps those responsible for these policies when establishing the most appropriate rehabilitation strategies. The need to act on an existing building can respond to different causes, one of which may have the most relevance in the coming years is the integration of photovoltaic installations. Seen from a broader perspective than that of the building itself, these actions will be necessary to achieve the reduction of emissions from the energy mix to which Europe has been forced, which threatens to introduce new requirements under the Technical Building Code. But also for economic reasons —to achieve greater energy independence and cheaper supply— and social ones, since 37.7% of the population of Andalusia is at risk of poverty and / or social exclusion, according to the “Report on the state of poverty in Andalusia” of the Andalusia Network to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion. We are going to review some of the technical challenges that we can find in this possible and desirable deployment.
Baseline data to prioritize building renovation
Abad Cano, R.; Garzarán Fernández, L.
Abstract
The European “Next Generation” funds are going to provide an opportunity for the rehabilitation of buildings. It invites to reflection on how to prioritize actions. In the scope of the EERAdata project (https://eeradata- project.eu/), in which the Malaga College of Architects participates as an expert entity in the construction process and link with the profession, society and public administration, it is under develop a SW application called Decision support Tool (DST). It helps those responsible for managing buildings in making decisions about renovation thanks to the information on the expected impact in different areas (social, economic, environmental, etc.).
The characterization of the sets of buildings to obtain the parameters that must be entered in the SW application can be done in two ways.
In one side, through the specific average parameters that defines each building, for which it will be necessary to have a prior study (energy certification) and a treatment of the data included in the energy certification files. This would be the way in which an expert / technical user would obtain the parameters to be entered in the SW application.
On the other side through default parameters of each building that will depend on the year of construction. This would be the way in which a normal user would use the tool, through default values previously entered in the SW application.
In this article, the first aspect will be developed, that is, the work of data treatment of energy certificates to obtain the specific parameters that feed the SW application in relation to the building envelope. It is important to highlight the following two points:
a) The SW application does not aim to design the specific rehabilitation of each building, but rather to guide building network managers on the positive impact that the rehabilitation of their network of buildings can have in different areas of interest: environmental impact, economic, embedded carbon, user health, etc.
b) There are other relevant parameters of the building envelope, which are not developed in this article, such as the permeability of the window, which the SW application takes into account as input data.