Exploitation of Business Models for Deep Renovation

In this workshop, we discussed the exploitation experiences gathered in some relevant H2020 projects on deep renovation: TripleA-reno, ProGETonE, P2Endure, 4rinEU, STUNNING, and TURNkey Retrofit. Directives and practical insights that support the experimentation with exploitation strategies in EU-funded projects will be elaborated as outcome of the workshop. The ability to envision user needs and integrate them into a project value proposition is a vehicle towards more effective and sustainable business models for deep renovation practices. However, many projects still struggle to involve the user in their business model design method. In spite of the clarified potential for business models underpinning energy efficiency measures to generate profit in the clean energy market, the uptake of deep renovation practices is not flourishing to its full potential. Several barriers have been highlighted that still distress the market uptake of energy efficiency measures, among which the need for long-term capital for often comparatively small investments, the strain of measuring and distributing the energy savings due to deep renovation practices, as well as general lack of familiarity among consumers with renovation concepts. The dispute here, with even the economically sound business models, is that, for the user, there is an apparent lack of attractiveness for deep renovations, that goes beyond the mere financial savings or economical profitability offered by the investment. A conceivable resolution to upsurge the market uptake of renovation practices, is therefore the design of business models, which focus on the multiple environmental, social and financial benefits deep renovation practices might deliver for the different stakeholders involved in the process. Benefits, that are sometimes hard to monetise and generalize among the involved user groups, as they do not always resonate to the provider/receiver of these values equally, but on the contrary can develop contrasting interests. Therefore, in this report, we are summarizing the contributions of several H2020 projects on deep renovation, including: TripleA-reno [1], ProGETonE [2], P2Endure [3], 4rinEU [4], STUNNING [5], and TURNkey Retrofit [6]. This, in a way to explore what type of deep renovation business models exist in practice, and how they actually are impacting the EU market uptake of deep renovation practices

A social engagement Fast Track on Energy Communities-Key Lesson Learned from H2020 EU Projects

Energy communities organise collective and citizen-driven energy actions that will help pave the way for a clean energy transition, while moving citizens to the forefront. The energy market is rapidly transforming and so is the role of the consumer. Yesterday’s passive consumers become central actors in today’s energy markets. Today, as prosumers, citizens can benefit from their generation, consumption, and storage capabilities. Moreover, by supporting social engagement and citizen participation, energy communities can help provide flexibility to the electricity system through demand response, storage, and peer-to-peer energy exchange. Based on the collective debate from nine H2020 running projects (Renaissance, COMETS, Sender, eCREW, Lightness, ReDream, HESTIA, UP-STAIRS and NRG2peers), several challenges and key lessons learned can be identified for just social engagement. These challenges and lessons are relevant for the present and future development of EU energy communities

People-centred deep renovation practices: from challenges to strategies

This paper bases its considerations from the refusal of the prevailing perception that buildings consume energy, and assumes, on the contrary, that it is actually people, that consume energy for their comfort. This means that it is necessary to identify the end users’ behaviour, actions and habits in relation to the use of energy and their way to make decisions regarding energy retrofit interventions. This should be done considering also the economic savings and the costs, health and wellbeing of people as important drivers in the decision-making process. To do so, in this paper, we will try to position the main challenges encountered by users in the deep renovation first, hence disclosing some possible strategic actions for the uptake of a peoplecentred revolution of the renovation market in EU

Occupant Behavior of Window Opening and Closing in Office Buildings: Data Mining Approaches

Occupant behavior is stochastic, complex, and multi-disciplinary. Studies have shown significant impact of occupant behavior on energy use and environmental performance of both residential and commercial buildings. The understanding of the relationship between occupant behavior and building energy consumption can be seen as one of the most effective ways to bridge the gap between predicted and actual energy consumption in buildings. However effective methodologies to remove the effects of other variables on building energy consumption and isolate the leverage of the human factor precisely are still poor investigated. Moreover, the use of data mining approaches in finding meaningful correlations in a large data set is rarely discussed in existing literature. In a view of these facts, this study employs two data mining methods, cluster analysis and association rules, to discover patterns of windows opening and closing in a dataset with: 10-minute interval data over two complete years, 16 offices of a natural ventilated building, and a dozen measured indoor and outdoor physical parameters. The windows opening/closing patterns consider diversity and presence of occupants, time of day and day of year, and important indoor and outdoor environmental parameters. The proposed data mining approaches can be used to disaggregate occupant behavior into clusters and to categorize typical drivers of behavior in office buildings. Final goal is to identify valid, novel, potential useful and understandable patterns of occupant behavior into measured building data. The identified windows opening/closing patterns will be represented as typical occupant profiles that can be used as input to current building energy modelling programs, like EnergyPlus and IDA-ICE, to investigate impact of windows opening and closing behavior on energy use and design of natural ventilation in building

The influence of realistic schedules for the use of appliances on the total energy performances in dwellings

The use of lighting and appliances influences buildings energy performance by affecting electricity and thermal loads. Nevertheless, their use is often predicted by arbitrary assumptions during the design phase. The paper focuses on the realistic description of domestic equipment use and its impact on the prediction of energy consumption in homes. A method for creating schedules of domestic appliances use, based on dwelling field monitoring is proposed. The method is validated by calibrating the simulated electric consumption with the monitored one. A baseline simulation model is developed in IDA Ice, in which the developed schedules (named Calibrated Realistic Schedules) are implemented. Then, the same model is used to implement the schedules for domestic appliance use proposed by the Italian reference standard for energy calculation UNI/TS 11300. The simulated energy performances are finally compared. Results shows that values for usage times and power from UNI/TS 11300 are appropriate references for predicting the equipment energy use at the design stage. However, standardized schedules do not take into account the lower use of equipment in summer, leading to higher predicted internal gains and consequently to oversizing the cooling system. The paper demonstrates the need for more realistic descriptions of appliances use to be included in simulation software, particularly in high performing buildings. Moreover, it gives evidence of the impact that actual occupant behaviour has on building energy performance

Testing Socio-Economic Demographic Variables on building energy consumption scenarios at the urban scale in Italy

In order to meet EU 2020 energy efficiency aggressive goals, there is a need to scale up the achievement of real energy consumption savings of current high performing building to the urban level. However, current low-energy, zero carbon, and net zero energy buildings are not performing as designed. Within the building sector industry there is an increasing concern about the mismatch between expected and actual performance, typically addressed as the ‘credibility gap'. The reasons for this discrepancy vary, but are mostly rooted in oversimplifying or ignoring occupant behavior in the building operation process. In this view, the presented study is testing the magnitude of socioeconomic demographic variables on building energy consumption energy scenarios at the urban scale. Measured thermal energy consumption data for a block of building in Torino, Italy are coupled with Geographical System Information (GIS) public census socio-economic data related to building occupants and analyzed through data mining techniques. Hence, energy model scenarios will be drawn to represent the impact of different building occupant profiles over mid-long term building energy consumption at the urban scale. Interpretation of the energy scenarios may allow energy designers and modelers, building operator and manager to develop energy efficiency measures and standards taking into account the leverage of socio-economic factors related to building occupants. Results may also support energy and urban planners to the release of energy policies and the development of robust energy urban planning tools aiming to bridge the "credibility gap" of targeted energy efficiency in buildin

European small-town Renewable Energy Communities: Participatory design of supporting tools as a vehicle to engage and understand local communities and their energy related concerns

This data set was collected in the context of the EU Horizon 2020 project LocalRes focusing on the energy transition and the involvement of citizens. Co-design workshops were held with citizens in four different demonstration sites in Europe to develop Renewable Energy Communities and introducing support tools like an application to foster this process. The aim was to gather the information regarding the interests, needs and concerns of citizens regarding the support tools and the Renewable Energy Community itself. The presented data is based on a questionnaire which was handed out during the workshops

Contextual and behavioural factors influencing human-building interaction in university offices: a cross-cultural comparison

This paper presents the outcomes of a survey questionnaire deployed in the buildings of the Faculty of Economics (FE) and Faculty of Arts (FA) of the University of Ljubljana (UL), Slovenia, in a cross-cultural comparison of previous results gathered in three analogous university buildings in Italy. Objective of this study, which was in the Slovenian cases supplemented by qualitative (ethnographic) research approaches, is to provide comparative insights into four key research objectives: (1) cultural, contextual and socio-demographic factors regarding interaction with shared environmental controls (such as adjustable thermostats, operable windows, blinds and shades, and artificial lighting), (2) group dynamics such as perceived social norms, attitudes, and intention to share controls, (3) occupant’s self-assessed ease of use and knowledge of how to operate control systems, and (4) occupant’s perceived comfort, satisfaction, and productivity. First cross-country comparison analysis implies that practices and habits on how occupants interact within public buildings present distinct patterns within EU countries. More broadly, this study attempts to confirm the validity of the mixed methods research, combining quantitative and qualitative inquiry, and the survey instrument, as a way to validate the robustness of outcomes for future studies. In addition, the paper aims at illustrating why and how insights from different fields of social science, including psychology, sociology and anthropology, can foster innovation in the area of adoption and acceptance of technologies in shared spaces. The final objective of the study is enhancing attractiveness and effectiveness of ICT solutions for increasing user awareness and information provisions targeting energy savings, office workers’ productivity and reduced operational energy costs, in the context of the EU H2020 MOBISTYLE project