A new procedure for assessing the energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings on district scale

Abstract Energy-efficient renovation of buildings is in a major role in achieving the climate targets. Refurbishment at district scale may contain several benefits compared to mere building renovations, such as reduced costs due to smaller unit costs. Furthermore, it provides municipalities better opportunities to implement energy and sustainability strategies. This paper introduces a district-scale procedure for analyzing energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings. The main targets for the developed procedure were: 1) easy way for feeding information, 2) dynamic calculation capacity, and 3) support for decision makers. In order to support the targets, the procedure combines energy simulation, 3D data modelling and visualization. Additionally, CityGML is utilized to receive building related district data. The procedure was tested in a Finnish case district where altogether six realistic refurbishment scenarios were compared by means of operational costs, energy usages and CO 2 emissions. The test analyses demonstrates that different scenarios may have conflicting impacts which give important information to the decision-makers. The procedure is not limited to the demonstrated scenarios but it can be modified for different purposes. Additionally, the procedure was compared to other district-level procedures identified from the literature. The procedure turned out to be a promising basis for assessing district-scale energy renovation alternatives.