Owing to the rapid urban growth of past decades, the refurbishment of buildings has become a central topic ofcity development. A key aspect of building renovations deals with energy saving, both for economic and en-vironmental concerns. The present literature mainly focuses on technological solutions for buildings, and therelateddataarestudiedwithdescriptivestatistics.Instead,thispaperaimstoevaluatetheenergyeffectivenessofrefurbishment interventions from a global sector viewpoint. This implies building representative datasets, de-veloping asyntheticcostindicator,estimatingaproperregression model, evaluatingthe meaningof resultsandoutline proper support policies. Two relevant case-studies are considered: the first is a published dataset ofEuropean service buildings, which contains detailed information on the undertaken interventions. The cost in-dicator is builtby averaging standard costs per square meter; next, a Beta regression model is fitted to the data.Thisbelongstotheclassof generalizedlinearmodels(GLM)anditis suitablewhenthedependentvariable(thesaving rate) has an asymmetrical distribution on the interval [0,1]. The second case study is a survey on theretrofitting decisions of households in an urban area of Venice; the related dataset includes information on thecost of investment, the energy saving, and the comfort improvement. Comfort may be a subjective perception,including physical, psychological and economic wellness;however, it is alsoa drive for housing renovation andfor energy saving itself. Statistical analyses show a significant positive dependence between all variables, con-firming the energy saving effectiveness of refurbishment interventions. On the base of these results, properrefurbishment policies, both for public and private actors, are finally proposed.
A statistical analysis of the energy effectiveness of building refurbishment
Grillenzoni, Carlo
2019-01-01
Abstract
Owing to the rapid urban growth of past decades, the refurbishment of buildings has become a central topic ofcity development. A key aspect of building renovations deals with energy saving, both for economic and en-vironmental concerns. The present literature mainly focuses on technological solutions for buildings, and therelateddataarestudiedwithdescriptivestatistics.Instead,thispaperaimstoevaluatetheenergyeffectivenessofrefurbishment interventions from a global sector viewpoint. This implies building representative datasets, de-veloping asyntheticcostindicator,estimatingaproperregression model, evaluatingthe meaningof resultsandoutline proper support policies. Two relevant case-studies are considered: the first is a published dataset ofEuropean service buildings, which contains detailed information on the undertaken interventions. The cost in-dicator is builtby averaging standard costs per square meter; next, a Beta regression model is fitted to the data.Thisbelongstotheclassof generalizedlinearmodels(GLM)anditis suitablewhenthedependentvariable(thesaving rate) has an asymmetrical distribution on the interval [0,1]. The second case study is a survey on theretrofitting decisions of households in an urban area of Venice; the related dataset includes information on thecost of investment, the energy saving, and the comfort improvement. Comfort may be a subjective perception,including physical, psychological and economic wellness;however, it is alsoa drive for housing renovation andfor energy saving itself. Statistical analyses show a significant positive dependence between all variables, con-firming the energy saving effectiveness of refurbishment interventions. On the base of these results, properrefurbishment policies, both for public and private actors, are finally proposed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.