Assessment of Mediterranean schools’ energy consumption and indoor environmental factors evolution through weighted Retrofit Potential Index in climate change scenarios
ue to the effects of climate change, Andalusia is evolving from a Mediterranean to an arid-dry climate. In this context, there is a growing social interest in providing thermal comfort conditions, also in schools. Most public secondary schools in Andalusia are obsolete in energy terms and 95 % of th...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositorio: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/171890 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/171890 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2025.112404 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Retrofit potential index Natural ventilation Energy consumption Indoor environmental quality Climate change |
| Sumario: | ue to the effects of climate change, Andalusia is evolving from a Mediterranean to an arid-dry climate. In this context, there is a growing social interest in providing thermal comfort conditions, also in schools. Most public secondary schools in Andalusia are obsolete in energy terms and 95 % of them rely exclusively on natural ventilation to keep classrooms cool and ensure indoor air quality. There is an urgent need to determine which schools require priority retrofitting as, despite economic constraints, non-compliance has a negative impact on pupils’ health and increases CO2 emissions with environmental impact. The main objective and primary novelty of this study is to establish a flexible weighted Retrofit Potential Index (RPIweighted) to objectively and simultaneously assess retrofitting needs by considering energy consumption, thermal comfort (TC) and indoor air quality (IAQ) under present and future climate change projections. To test it, energy models of archetypal schools were developed and validated. The diagnostic results show a decreasing trend in energy intensity use of between 4.7 and 8.8 kWh/m2·yr due to the demand reduction of the only thermal conditioning system, heating. Furthermore, winter thermal comfort issues could be reduced by 10–30 %, leading to widespread vulnerability in summer with a 20–85 % increase in overheating. The results show some difficulty in meeting indoor air quality regulatory requirements, even during the current scenario. RPIweighted results indicated a need for renovation and could not only serves as a diagnostic tool but also as a design tool for retrofitting proposals. |
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