Abstract
The construction industry is one of the most energy-intensive, resource depleting, and pollution emitting sector in the world. Methods of prolonging the service life and increasing the performance of buildings are heavily explored. This presents an opportunity to improve the performance of existing buildings by incorporating energy-efficient technologies and strategies and either on-site or off-site generation. The ambitious goal would be to transform aged buildings into Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB). Due to economic restrictions and feasibility concerns, energy retrofit strategies must be designed and planned well to achieve the long-term goals of a building. Proposed Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is developed through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and VIKOR for evaluating energy retrofit strategies in buildings that include three performance criteria: environment, economy, and technical. As proof of concept, a case study involving a whole building simulation is considered. The feasibility of a NZEB on an existing university building is achieved, however, based on the results of MCDA, stakeholders gave importance to the initial investment cost rather than the technical performance of retrofit interventions.
