Energy efficient retrofit study for an existing residential building: Afyon TOKİ agricultural village project

Increase of energy consumption and inefficient natural energy resources usage are affecting nature negatively with ecological balance damage nowadays. After the oil crisis in 1973, all over the world focus on fossil fuel consumption. Until today, energy conservation and environmental sustainability has become an evaluated topic. The general topic of energy consumption and additional environmental problems and their effects on global climate change, helped to define broad research areas concentrated on energy efficiency and energy performance of buildings. All over the world, beside end use energy usage comparison, residential share has significant ratio. Construction or refurbishment of residential buildings has to maximize utilisation of sustainable energy sources and minimize balance of nature through lifelong. Therefore, architectural technicality has considerable details for next generation's energy and natural habitat necessity. The interest of energy consumption and increasing the usage of energy resource is important for new design building as well as the existing building. Especially in Turkey, existing building stock covers very high ratio of the general energy consumption. Most of the building stock that are built before 2000, has no thermal insulation layers. Until at the beginning of 2000, regarding the insufficiencies and regulation leaks in Turkish building stock, energy efficiency studies and applications require a methodological coverages to decrease the energy consumption through residential buildings. Refurbishment works of buildings primarily targets energy efficiency improvements for heating and cooling.Contribution to comfort standards, environmental life quality, ecological balance, sustainability are considered as additional benefits of retrofitting. Principally, existing residential building retrofitting projects has to start with defining accurate energy efficient design parameters. Improvements should be regarded by the factor of maximum performance gain. Suggestions are done considering these factors according to result of total energy load evaluations. Within the scope of this study, energy efficient design alternatives are suggested for high energy demand existing buildings with the aim of improvements. Retrofit solutions are applied to TOKI (Turkey Housing Development Administration) Afyon Sinanpasa district Serban area completed agricultural village project with different building element alternatives and passive solar system integrations. In the first two chapter, introduction of thesis has done within explanation of energy usages, comparisons for world and Turkey. Statistical analyses for household energy consumptions, ratios of energy usage areas, distributions of building ages are remarked. Moreover, energy efficiency, and energy efficient retrofit design parameters are stated. Natural environment relevant design parameters are examined based on climate and topographic conditions. Effects of temperature, solar radiation, humidity, air flow, altitude and inclination on residential buildings design are clarified. Artificatitious environment relevant design parameters are examined based on direction, position, form and shell of building. Second chapter also contains regulations about energy efficiency in Turkey. The main purpose of the regulations is to focus on increasing efficiency in using energy sources and promoting energy efficiency in buildings. Using energy sources effectively is important for avoid waste, ease the burden of energy costs on the economy and protect environment. According to Energy Efficiency Law every building (which is existed or in built) having a total area more than 1000 m² has to have an Energy Identification Certificate. This certificate includes information on the minimum energy requirements, energy consumption classification, insulation characteristics, and efficiency of heating and/or cooling systems of a building. This certificate system restricts the large amount of energy usage especially in residential buildings. Third chapter represents energy efficient refurbishment case studies for different climate and city examples of the world. Existing residential building samples are examined through several scenarios. Energy loads and thermal loss are analysed by before-after refurbishment comparisons. Five various country cases has showed with alternative solutions for energy gain. Sample implementations for energy retrofit of residential buildings or units from Switzerland Zug built in 1946, Netherland Roosendaal built in 1965 , Italy Savona built in 1970, Czech Republic Brno built nearly thirty years ago, and Spain Cordoba built in 1994 are presented. Most retrofitting examples contain modifications of facade insulations. Only the example which is built in Italy Savona has the different retrofitting systems. They use passive solar system to increasing efficiency in using solar energy. Trombe wall is fixed on the building and it works succesfully according to energy cost calculations. In the fourth chapter Toki Afyon agricultural village project is analysed with aim of energy efficient retrofit regarding second chapter's criteria. Additionally, modelling and simulation has done by Design Builder program over a reference building on layout plan. Alternative suggestions for decrease of specified residential building's annual heating, cooling and total loads are developed. General evaluations are done via energy efficient design alternatives calculated by Design Builder simulation programme. Evaluation results are combined with suggested alternatives and defined conditions by integrating to reference building. Comparisons of origin and insulated studies are also explained in this chapter. Furthermore all calculations are made on reference as a unique building within the study. Different opaque shell elements, transparent elements, solar control equipments, solar garden, trombe wall usage and applications are studied for energy performance tuning. Energy efficient design alternatives are compared by energy loads and grouped by minimal solution. Fourth chapter ends with examination of reference building's energy efficiency inside a city block and interaction of neighbour structures. In the fifth chapter, overall evaluation of simulations and results are represented. Energy efficient refurbishment of existing residential buildings is analysed with design phase parameters and effects on consumption. Evaluations are based on annual heating, cooling and total loads. Alternatives with lowest results are combined to occur new groups. Minimum load providing group is compared with origin building and the other selection which has no insulation. As a result, this thesis aims to represent energy efficient retrofit significance from the point of energy consumption. Refurbishment studies are based on alternative integrations with a consequence of energy load variety. Modelling and calculations throughout this study presents that energy efficient increasing applications leads to decrease of healing and cooling loads at Afyon Serban Agricultural Village project. Retrofits could be applied as modifications of opaque and transparent elements, usage of solar control elements, additional solar gardens and trombe walls by considering suggested alternative costs. Design phase is most significant process to decide several parameters for maximum energy gain. Owing to simulation programs, energy efficient design parameters help to carry out evaluations. Thus, numerous parameters like direction, form, position of building could not be changed after construction.