A Methodology to Address the Gap Between Calculated and Actual Energy Performance in Deep Renovations of Offices and Hotels

Abstract

AbstractA European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project named ALDREN (ALliance for Deep RENovation in buildings) https://aldren.eu/ aims to establish the business case for deep renovation. The 30 month programme which started in November 2017 intends to encourage investment and accelerate the movement towards a nearly zero energy non-residential building stock across the EU, as tar-geted by 2050 to meet Paris Agreement commitments. The back-bone of ALDREN is the EVCS (European common Voluntary Certification Scheme) (Ribeiro serrenho T, Rivas Calvete S and Bertoldi P Cost-benefit analysis of the EVCS implementa-tion, EUR - Scientific and Technical Research Reports, 2017) which will be used to track the deep renovation process. This paper describes the processes and tools being developed to close the gap between calculated and measured energy perfor-mance (EP):1. A framework allowing measured (operational) performance to be compared with predicted (design) performance across all the countries in the ALDREN consor-tium using a harmonised approach and common language fed by a glossary of terms.2. A “design for measurability” protocol that tracks the actions required during the deep renovation process, to ensure that performance predictions are as realistic as possible, that the construction and commissioning process is true to the design intent, and allowing the predicted performance to be verified through measurements.3. A performance verification tool, which allows the predicted and actual (mea-sured) performance to be compared at different levels of granularity.The paper concludes that nearly zero energy performance targets can become measured outcomes, where driven by client leadership and wider team buy-in, and using the power of advanced simulation of HVAC systems to optimise design and ensure operation is aligned with the design intent.