Session: 08-14-03: Emerging Technologies in Solar Energy

Paper Number: 93887

93887 - A Systematic Literature Review of Passive Energy Consumption Optimisation Strategies in Buildings and Their Selection Criteria 

Buildings are essential to the development and sustainability of any society, due to the criticality of their residential, commercial and educational roles. However, the building sector has also been classified as highly energy-intensive, due to its ever-rising annual energy consumption trends. According to existing literature, buildings use over 30% of the total final energy all around the world and over 40% in developed countries. The mentioned energy consumption rate is in fact expected to increase further over the coming years, due to current trends of global population growth. It is therefore imperative to deduce and implement strategies that would improve the sustainability of energy within the built environment. Generally, energy consumption optimization strategies in buildings can be categorized into two broad groups called active strategies and passive strategies. Active strategies are associated with taking advantage of electrical or mechanical appliances during the process of energy consumption optimization. For instance, using Photovoltaic (PV) panels outside the buildings’ envelope or geothermal energy exchangers are considered as active strategies which reduce energy consumption. On the other hand, passive strategies do not require any electrical or mechanical appliances to reduce energy consumption in buildings. Using green walls or shading devices on buildings’ facades can be introduced as two instances of passive energy consumption optimization strategies. implementation of passive energy strategies for building energy management can be introduced as one of the most promising strategies in recent times. Aside from being more cost-effective in comparison to active strategies, one of the other key features of passive strategies is that they are able to be implemented on historical buildings as well as contemporary buildings, which is regarded very useful for preserving the numerous heritage sites around the world.  Although there is a reasonable acknowledgement of the proficiency of passive strategies for alleviating challenges of building energy consumption, there is no single article within existing body of knowledge that harmonises such strategies, which makes it rather challenging for researchers and practitioners to conduct rapid but detailed comparisons. Furthermore, the approaches for selecting the most appropriate passive energy consumption optimisation strategies have not been adequately standardised, which makes it challenging to instantly identify suitable strategies and their corresponding selection criteria. The use of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)/Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches have proven useful for aiding the selection of alternatives based on multiple criteria in numerous studies during recent years. However, there are several techniques within the MCDA/MCDM class of techniques, which makes the selection process rather convoluted. Based on these premises, the overarching aim of the current study is to generate the most prevalent passive energy consumption optimisation strategies for buildings, the criteria for their selections and the corresponding MCDA/MCDM techniques that aided such selections, through a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Procedure for Performing Systematic Reviews (PPSR) based systematic literature review (SLR). The SLR examined research articles that are domiciled within very popular databases such as Compendex, GEOBASE, GeoRef, Inspec, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, based on meticulously constructed keywords. The results of the SLR are hereby provided and discussed in the current study. 

Presenting Author: Amirhossein Balali The university of Manchester

Presenting Author Biography: Amirhossein Balali is a PhD student at the department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering (MACE), the University of Manchester. Amir holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering- Construction Management from Islamic Azad University of Shiraz, Iran, and joined MACE in September 2021 as a fully-funded PhD student (Dean’s Doctoral Scholar Award, awarded by the University of Manchester). His PhD research focuses on combining the concepts of management in civil engineering. More specifically, he is focusing on identification and prioritization of passive energy consumption optimization strategies in Manchester buildings. He has published 9 papers in high-rank journals including the journal of Building Engineering, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, International Journal of Construction Management and Sustainable Materials and Technologies. In terms of industry experience, Amir has worked in building construction projects (Sazehgar Construction Company, Iran) and subway site construction projects (Jahad Tosee Construction Company, Iran).

Authors:

Amirhossein Balali The university of Manchester
Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo University of Manchester
Rodger Edwards The University of Manchester