A methodological approach for a home occupants centred web tool to support buildings energy retrofitting process

Abstract

This paper presents a methodological approach to develop a user-oriented web tool to support the early stage of the decision making process for energy retrofitting of residential real estates. The tool mixes a simple analytical Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM) to user-oriented feedback interfaces to simulate the retrofitting potential of the residential units. The AUREE tool will be based on a Web – GIS GeoBlog portal with customized interfaces aimed to share the knowledge on urban building heritage and promote participation of stakeholders of the urban community. There are many literature exempla of guidelines or quality protocols on the topic of energy efficiency specified to particular types of buildings or focused on a territorial area, but these are generally not integrated into a geographically based tool. Moreover, the AUREE methodology aims to set interfaces that could use the portal users’ feedback to update the content of the portal itself. After touch on the theoretical context, a summary of the AUREE project is presented, and then the paper focuses on the structures of algorithms and tools adopted on the residential users’ interfaces. The interface mixes the results of an engineering Urban Building Energy Model based on local archetypal approach and standard energy calculation (series UNI 11300 - TS), with participative data provided via user-interactive interfaces to obtain customized retrofitting scenarios and suggestions. At the end of the paper, the main critical aspects and the further step of the research project are pointed