CORDIS

To achieve EU targets of CO2 emission reductions, the Zero Energy Building (ZEB) and near-ZEB (NZEB) market share in construction and refurbishment needs to significantly increase: in refurbishment, specifically, an increase by a factor of two to three times of the current rate of between 1.2% and 1.4% in the decades up to 2050 is required.
The RECO2ST project is positioned to address this challenge, through coverage of the entire refurbishment supply chain and encompassing all the stages, from planning and decision making to installation, operation and monitoring.
The project will enable the formulation of customized and efficient renovation action plans and implement cost efficient technological solutions improving the energy efficiency of residential buildings to NZEB levels, through reductions of more than 60% in energy use and at the same time achieve optimal indoor environmental conditions, improving the lives of the inhabitants, and increasing building value for the owners.
The project objectives is:
• To make NZEB refurbishment accessible through novel customizable business models.
• To develop a comprehensive, accurate and accessible Refurbishment Assessment Process delivering refurbishment scenarios customized to end-user needs and applicable to a wide variety of residential buildings made possible by:
- a systemic and integrated NZEB Refurbishment Assessment Platform.
- a method for accurate Refurbishment Planning, enabling accelerated decision making and refurbishment operations through implementation of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) - reducing the time, cost and complexity of the process.
- a customized retrofit-Kit featuring innovative technologies that will achieve NZEB refurbishment with satisfactory indoor environmental quality for a wide variety of refurbishment scenarios and occupant behaviours.
- cost efficiency optimization through the identification of the optimal balance point between building energy efficiency measures, indoor environmental quality and on-site renewable energy generation.
• To ensure realization of energy saving measures through cultivating energy-conscious inhabitant behavior, through streamlined and intuitive energy management and through intelligent building interaction with the energy system.
• To achieve substantial improvements of urban microclimate and overall quality of human life by ensuring a healthy, safe and comfortable indoor environment.
• To demonstrate the replicability of the proposed solution through demonstration in varying scenarios.

The RECO2ST project started with the development of project specifications, mapping of expected exploitable results, verification of the holistic platform approach and development of the integrated project delivery methodology in order to provide a solid basis for the development activities to be carried out later in the project.

The first phase also included a first verification and test of the ideas for integrated renovation assessment and through application and test on the four demonstration sites important lessons learned has been very useful and directly used and implemented in the development activities in the first 18 month.

A main part of the work in the first project period has been related to the development of a Retrofit Kit comprising the following technologies: Vacuum insulation panels (VIPs); Smart window system; Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) panels; An innovative air handling unit (IAHU) system; Two new cool, paint and membrane materials; Nature Based Technologies to reduce particulate matter and VOC concentration. The following technologies are under development: An Intelligent Energy Management System (IEMS) concept and a Graphical user Interface (GUI). The planning and preparations of test and validation of developed technologies in different experimental facilities has been completed and tests have already been started for some of the technologies.

The work on the Renovation Assessment Platform has included improvements of the EOIQR+ tool by developing a new methodology to calculate renovations costs in all European countries, by integrating a LCA database and by standardization of the building element structure. A structure of the platform has been developed making it possible to aggregate results of cost, energy savings and life cycle assessment indicators for separate renovations actions as well as for renovation scenarios. To ensure smooth integration of tools and databases in the platform a data transfer protocol based on the JSON format was developed. A prototype of the platform is ready to be tested by users from demo- and early adopter sites.

Demonstration activities are performed in four multifamily residential buildings located in Cadiz-Spain, Lausanne-Switzerland, London-UK and Frederikshavn-Denmark. Achievements so far has included: Auditing, monitoring and evaluation of performance before renovation as well as, development of renovation scenarios and building interventions. Installation and commissioning of technologies is in progress.

A number of different tasks is carried out in order to support the RECO2ST commercialization. This includes the development of a social adoption plan (completed), analysis of application opportunities in national regulations and standardisation (in progress) as well as how LCA and LCC calculations, climate change and urban environments can support and/or influence renovation scenario development and decision making (in progress). To further support users in the development of their renovation business cases a Business Model KIT is under development that address the whole renovation value chain including funding mechanisms and financing schemes. Until now work has included mapping of stakeholders and development of approach and methodology. In order to ensure a proper direction of the development work discussions with early adopters and test of first ideas at early adopter sites has been carried out.

So far, the performance of the developed technologies has met the expected performance indicators set out in the project.

When the whole RECO2ST approach including the Renovation Assessment Platform, the Retrofit-Kit, the Integrated Project Delivery method, the Intelligent Energy Management System and the Business Model-Kit is implemented in renovation projects, it is expected that the impact will be:
• Reduction of at least 60% in energy consumption in order to reach the target of near zero energy compared to the values before renovation, while enhancing indoor environmental quality
• Decrease of installation time by at least 30% compared to typical renovation process for the building type.
• Demonstration of a high replicability potential and of large market uptake capacity.
• Affordability considering all costs involved, with a payback period below 15 years.
• New generation of skilled workers and SME contractors in the construction sector capable of applying a systemic approach to renovation.