Title: Approach for modelling the sustainable performance of a building envelope for an energy efficient design

Authors: Abrahams Mwasha; Rupert G. Williams; Joseph Iwaro

Addresses: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract: Building energy consumption continues to grow in both developing and developed countries despite numerous methods and approaches being developed to address the problem, and a substantial part of this problem is attributed to residential energy consumption. Relying on the current methods of reducing energy consumption to achieve sustainable energy efficiency in residential buildings is not sufficient to handle the current problem. Also, there is little or no concern given to the integrated passive approach of reducing energy consumption. The objective of this paper is to introduce an integrated passive approach using the residential building envelope sustainable performance modelling as an effective means of reducing building energy consumption without rebounding effects. This will involve considering the current methods of assessing building performance and subsequently developing a new approach for modelling the sustainable performance of the residential building envelope. The approach also involves using questionnaire techniques to identify the essential performance indicators that will be integrated into the new modelling approach.

Keywords: building envelopes; sustainable performance; energy efficiency; energy efficient designs; sustainability; residential buildings; energy consumption; integrated passive approaches; rebounding effects; performance assessment; performance modelling; performance indicators; building energy methods; modelling frameworks; Trinidad; Tobago; construction industry; multicriteria decision making; MCDM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2012.045082

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2012 Vol.2 No.1, pp.47 - 73

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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