Energy-efficient retrofitting of educational buildings: a case study of a higher education facility

In recent years, the increasing global energy demand, the exhaustibility of fossil fuels, and the effects of climate change have made energy efficiency a priority agenda both in Turkey and around the world. The efficient use of energy resources not only provides economic benefits but also plays a critical role in ensuring environmental sustainability. In this context, as buildings constitute a significant portion of energy consumption, improving the energy performance of existing structures has become highly important. Especially in public buildings such as educational facilities, energy efficiency is valuable both for the effective management of public resources and for ensuring user comfort.In this regard, two key initiatives have been implemented in Turkey to enhance the energy performance of public buildings: KAYEP (Public Renewable Energy Project) and KABEV (Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings Project). These projects aim to achieve energy savings and strengthen energy management capacity in public buildings through structural and system-level improvements. Particularly in public-use buildings such as educational facilities, these projects offer important application areas for promoting sustainable and efficient energy use. In this thesis, the energy-efficient improvement of university buildings is addressed through a case study of Blocks A, B, C, and D of the Faculty of Education at Trakya University, located in Edirne, Turkey. The buildings, constructed between 2006 and 2010 and situated in the 4th climate zone according to TS 825, are exposed to a continental climate. Falling behind current energy efficiency standards, the building complex was re-evaluated using a scenario-based approach, and four different energy improvement scenarios were developed.In the first scenario, the current state of the vii building was analyzed to determine its existing energy performance. The second scenario implemented passive energy efficiency strategies in line with TS 825, including improvements to the building envelope. In the third scenario, energy-efficient active systems were integrated. The fourth and final scenario adopted a holistic strategy, combining both passive and active systems.This study is unique in that it presents a comparative evaluation of passive and active energy efficiency measures, both individually and in combination, through scenario analysis. Furthermore, the use of local climate data and a fixed user profile in the modeling process contributes to the development of applicable strategies for educational buildings located in similar climatic conditions. Through simulations conducted using the DesignBuilder software, the impact of each scenario on annual energy consumption was assessed under fixed user profiles and climate data. The findings highlight the significance of not only structural interventions but also the integration of appropriate technological systems in achieving energy efficiency. The simulation results clearly demonstrate the mathematically verified impact of energy efficiency improvements. With passive system upgrades, a 29.20% reduction in annual energy consumption was achieved. The integration of active systems resulted in a 29.80% improvement. The fact that both passive and active systems yielded nearly equal improvements when applied separately is a noteworthy finding. In the integrated scenario, energy savings reached 47.07%, underlining the critical role of combined strategies in enhancing building sustainability. These findings demonstrate that the combined application of passive and active systems provides more efficient results compared to their individual use. This study emphasizes that energy saving has become not only an economic concern but also an environmental necessity. It shows that interventions at the building scale can contribute significantly to sustainability. The widespread adoption of energy-efficient building designs will contribute both to national energy policies and to the achievement of global climate targets.