A comparison of an energy/economic-based against an exergoeconomic-based multi-objective optimisation for low carbon building energy design. (1st June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: García Kerdan, Iván; Raslan, Rokia; Ruyssevelt, Paul; Morillón Gálvez, David
• Is Part Of: Energy. Volume 128(2017)
• Page Start: 244
• Page End: 263
• Publication Date: 2017-06-01
• Subjects: Optimisation -- Building simulation -- Energy -- Exergy -- Low carbon buildings -- Exergoeconomics; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power (Mechanics) -- Periodicals; Energy consumption -- Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.03.142
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-5442

Abstract

Abstract: This study presents a comparison of the optimisation of building energy retrofit strategies from two different perspectives: an energy/economic-based analysis and an exergy/exergoeconomic-based analysis. A recently retrofitted community centre is used as a case study. ExRET-Opt, a novel building energy/exergy simulation tool with multi-objective optimisation capabilities based on NSGA-II is used to run both analysis. The first analysis, based on the 1st Law only, simultaneously optimises building energy use and design's Net Present Value (NPV). The second analysis, based on the 1st and the 2nd Laws, simultaneously optimises exergy destructions and the exergoeconomic cost-benefit index. Occupant thermal comfort is considered as a common objective function for both approaches. The aim is to assess the difference between the methods and calculate the performance among main indicators, considering the same decision variables and constraints. Outputs show that the inclusion of exergy/exergoeconomics as objective functions into the optimisation procedure has resulted in similar 1st Law and thermal comfort outputs, while providing solutions with less environmental impact under similar capital investments. This outputs demonstrate how the 1st Law is only a necessary calculation while the utilisation of the 1st and 2nd Laws becomes a sufficient condition for the analysis and design of low carbon buildings. Highlights: The study compares an energy-based and an exergy-based building design optimisation. Occupant thermal comfort is considered as a common objective function. A comparison of thermodynamic outputs is made against the actual retrofit design. Under similar constraints, second law optimisation presents better overall results. Exergoeconomic optimisation solutions improves building exergy efficiency to double.