In this section, you can access to the latest technical information related to the FUTURE project topic.

Chapter 3 Understanding Economic Constraints to Achieve Nearly ZEUS

This chapter is concerned with understanding and estimating the economic feasibility of retrofitting actions to achieve nearly zero urban settings (ZEUS). By discussing and comparing the economic and energy impact of different design and architectural options, this chapter aims to address the following important questions: ? Is the technical feasibility combinable with the economic feasibility in the retrofitting of existing buildings toward ZEUS? ? To what extent are deep renovation and high transformation of buildings toward ZEUS competitive with shallow or conventional retrofit? Which type of non-energy-related factors could be considered to properly assess this competitiveness? Calculation of and further reflection on estimated costs for the energy retrofitting options indicate the need for additional actions and measures to counterbalance the high up-front costs and the long payback times of energy retrofitting. Regarding the concept of deep renovation, this work identifies the possibility of achieving a major renovation to achieve nZEBs and ZEUS. Other energy retrofitting operations involving the use of sunspaces, buffer zones, extra rooms, and even "assistant buildings" were considered, and the various design assumptions and the consequent variations in economic viability were compared and discussed. Hence, this chapter contributes to the current debate on shallow-versus-deep and deep-versus-major renovations in existing buildings, showing the potential benefits of major renovation through architectural and technical modifications not discussed so far.

» Author: Auttapone Karndacharuk, Douglas J. Wilson, Roger C.M. Dunn

» Reference: Towards Nearly Zero Energy

» Source: ScienceDirect - GPP

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