Sustainable and energy-efficient housing design through building information modelling

Global energy demand is increasing exponentially, and the vast majority of this energy demand is met by non-renewable energy sources. Buildings account for 35% of total energy use worldwide. New buildings constitute only 1% of the existing housing stock. Therefore, upgrading the energy performance of existing buildings with retrofit strategies offers significant opportunities to reduce global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology is considered a process and corresponding technology used to increase efficiency and effectiveness at all stages of the life cycle of buildings. BIM can be used to predict the energy performance of retrofit measures by creating models of existing buildings, suggesting alternatives, analyzing and comparing building performance for these alternatives. In this study, a case study on a residential building was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of BIM in the renovation of existing buildings and to develop suggestions about applicable and optimized retrofitting techniques. After calculating the energy performance of an existing house with the integration of Autodesk Revit and Green Building Stuido (GBS), 8 parameters were determined to increase the energy performance of the building: building orientation, building envelope (wall, roof, thermal insulation, window and facade transparency ratio), lighting and photovoltaic panel. Options were developed for these parameters, 192 alternative scenarios were created and energy analyzes were made. Finally, a comparison was made between the alternative building, which was created by using the most suitable scenario determined for each parameter, and the existing building. In addition, the initial investment costs of the retrofitting works and the savings in the building were taken into account, and the return on investments were calculated. Results were evaluated according to energy consumption (annual / lifecycle) (fuel and electricity), cost (annual / lifecycle), energy use intensity and CO2 emissions. Life cycle energy cost, which is currently 465974 TL, is 186798 TL for the optimum alternative scenario. 61% savings in annual fuel consumption and 64% in electricity consumption were achieved. The total cost of the retrofitting methods is 275050 TL. Considering the investment cost of the retrofit works and the annual savings it provides, the payback period has been calculated as approximately 12 years. Finally, in order to determine the accuracy of the building energy performance results obtained from the GBS simulation tool, the results are compared with the actual energy consumption data of the existing building. While the 11% difference between the GBS simulation results and the real data for fuel proves to provide reliable results, the 296% difference for electricity is an indication that GBS does not give accurate results for electricity consumption / cost calculation in this study. Keywords: Building information modelling, Sustainable architecture, Building performance analysis, Energy analysis, Building retrofitting, Revit, Green building studio