Optimization of the refurbishment of German single family homes based on
construction era
Abstract
This publication devises a method which formulates a national strategy
for the renovation of single family houses by treating each era of
initial construction independent of all the others, and applies a
universally adoptable procedure to evaluate the cost efficiency of
carbon emission reduction. A multi-objective optimization was conducted
which varied the building envelope and energy systems while optimizing
for annual cost and carbon emissions. The optimization was carried out
in oemof.solph and PyGMO on typical German building stocks from 11
different construction eras between 1860 and 2020. The buildings were
modelled in TEASER using TABULA building stock data. The results
indicate that post-war era construction has the greatest improvement
potential by saving over 16 tons of CO2/yr with respect to its business
as usual case. The recommended solutions for each construction era have
an investment cost to emission reduction ratio which is 25% better than
those of the current efficiency subsidies.