10 RESULTS – 4RinEU project | Renovation of Residential buildings in EU

4RinEU strategy supports investors through all the phases of building renovation with 10 main results.

TECHNOLOGIES

Technologies constitute the backbone of the cost-effective deep renovation packages that include both innovative solutions and products already available on the market. The aim of 4RinEU technologies is to reduce energy demand, to improve energy efficiency, improve building operations, and to reduce the construction waste.

TO REDUCE ENERGY DEMAND

Prefabricated Multifunctional Façade

Timber based prefabricated elements with integrated building service components are aimed at reducing costs, construction time and disturbance for occupants during the renovation. 4RinEU approach considers buildings at the end of their lifetime, with a poor energy performance and offering a low living quality to the residents. Applying a prefabricated multifunctional façade is an alternative to tearing down and building anew and brings the building to a new, extended lifetime. The advantages are:

reduced time and failures on the construction site
higher industrial quality standards,
reduced lifetime costs,
reduced energy demand,
use of renewable construction materials.

Related report:

Prefabricated multifunctional façade and technical booklet – Confidential

This document describes 4RinEU’s systematic and robust approach towards deep renovation using prefabricated multifunctional timber-frame façade elements. These prefabricated elements integrate building service components that are added to existing buildings by means of the new envelope, improving energy performance.

For more information please contact Gumpp & Maier

TO REDUCE ENERGY DEMAND

Comfort Ceiling Fan Smart Operation

4RinEU smart ceiling fan has the capability of automatically adapting its rotational speed based on the temperature and relative humidity values measured in the room. Its algorithm was developed starting from the existing knowledge of thermal comfort and human physiology, and with the support of simulations and experiments.

Related report

Fan/HVAC control strategies and integration guidelines – Confidential

This study describes the development of a smart ceiling fan that can be used to ensure thermal comfort in warm and hot conditions.

For more information please contact Eurac Research

TO IMPROVE BUILDING OPERATIONS

Sensible Building Data Handler

A data handler collecting real time data from the building and providing customised information to the building users and to investors in the renovation process.

Related report

Sensible Building Data Handler App – Confidential

This document is the final report on the development activities undertaken in T2.6 of the 4RinEU project to deliver the Sensible Building Data Handler. It consists of 5 main chapters:

Overview
Development phase 1: Sensible Data Handler audit application: Alpha Release
Development phase 2: Sensible Data Handler audit application
Development phase 2: Sensible Data Handler web-based dashboards
Conclusions and next steps

For more information please contact IES

TO IMPROVE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Plug&Play Energy Hub - PPEH

Hydronic module that can be connected in series/parallel allowing control and monitoring of complex heating and cooling systems, integrating available RES and improving the match between thermal energy demand and production.

Related report

Plug&Play Energy Hub prototypes and technical booklet - Confidential

This document describes the design, execution and results of the performance tests of the NRGate hydronic module jointly developed by Eurac Research and Thermics S.r.l. within the scope of the 4RinEU project.

For more information please contact THERMICS

TO IMPROVE ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Early-RENo

Early design methodology for renovation, optimizing the use of RES active solutions (PV and ST) and natural resources (natural ventilation and daylighting potential). It is tailored on the building characteristics and allows the project developer to choose the best strategy according to several cost-effective criteria.

Related report

Early-RENo: Early design methodology – Confidential

Early-Reno stands for Early design methodology for Renewable Optimal use in building renovation process. This methodology has been included into an integrated tool, aimed to support the early decision-making process in case of renovation. The objective of the tool is to suggest the solution for maximising the exploitation of renewable energy sources available on site, while renovating a building. The main target users of the tool are designers and practitioners that have to evaluate the renewable energy potential and its exploitation while planning a renovation project. The tool is quite flexible, but it has been developed considering the specific boundary conditions and needs of residential buildings (both single and multi family houses), according to the focus of 4Rin EU project.

For more information please contact Eurac Research

TO REDUCE CONSTRUCTION WASTE

Strategies for Components End-Of-Life

4RinEU guideline will define effective strategies for managing the component end-of-life (with a special focus on 4RinEU technologies and demos). It includes (a) a tool for quick identification of waste material from the existing buildings, (b) technologies for recovery of materials, (c) strategies to optimise the end-of life of 4RinEU renovations and (d) strategies to optimise the end-of-life of components in the building-to-be-renovated – and thus minimise 4RinEU embodied energy.

Related report

Guidelines and technology concepts for managing building end of life

The objective of the guidelines is to define good practices to advise the manufacturers in relation to the sustainability of deconstruction processes. With this aim, specific disassembly approaches to manage the end-of-life of the buildings components, increasing the recycling rate of the construction materials for the proposed technologies, are defined.

Download the report – September, 30 2019

METHODOLOGIES

4RinEU methodologies support the stakeholders along the whole renovation process, helping understand renovation issues and associated potentials, ensure an effective and participated design, manage the construction site and reduce the working time and the associated failures.

TO ACCURATELY UNDERSTAND RENOVATION ISSUES AND POTENTIALS

Cost-Optimal Energy Audit

Using surveys, measurements and modelling, 4RinEU will define an audit methodology and tools to reduce ‘prebound’ and ‘rebound’ effect on energy use in buildings, considering fuel poverty issue. This will increase the reliability and reduce the payback time.

Related report

Audit methodology and M&V protocol for deep renovation - Confidential

4RinEU defines a protocol to reduce “pre-bound” and “rebound” effects on the estimation of energy use in buildings, also considering the fuel poverty issue. As a consequence, the reliability of deep renovation will increase, and the payback time will be certain and shorter. These elements are necessary for increasing the building owners’ and financers’ confidence and, therefore, the rate of renovation.

For more information please contact ADERMA

TO ENSURE AN EFFECTIVE AND PARTICIPATED DESIGN

Investor and Building User-Oriented Design Platform based on BIM

A design platform (hosted in a cloud server, connected with the repository of the deep renovation packages) allowing data collection and facts exchange. It will provide building users and investors with information related to the potential savings, costs, and lifecycle of the constructions.

Related report

Deep renovation design platform – Confidential

This document is the final report on the development activities undertaken in T3.2 of the 4RinEU project to deliver the Collaborative Design Platform (CDP) to support planning and design phase. The CDP has been created to support not just the planning and design phase, but all steps of the 4RinEU methodology across the life cycle of a building. The building repository and deep renovation packages can be included as supporting documents in context of the broader process, and various 4RinEU key performance indicators can be implemented and tracked at different stages.

This document is confidential – For more information please contact IES

TO REDUCE CONSTRUCTION TIME AND FAILURES

Deep Renovation Implementation Management

4RinEU developed technologies and a methodologies that improve productivity within the construction processes, finding the way to reduce time, risks and costs of implementation and potential performance losses of the deep renovation. It includes the construction actions and a set of indicators assessing the effectiveness of the process.

Related report

4RinEU management to implement deep renovation

In general terms, a Deep Renovation project basically consists on the implementation of a set of actions aimed to reduce the global energy consumption of an existing building, through the renovation of the heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water and lighting systems and the improvement of the energy passive features of the building envelope. It is usually a complex process which involves many stakeholders, goes through several stages, implements a wide and diverse range of technical solutions and must consider a set of technical, economic and human factors with common and ambitious objectives. Renovation projects are usually approached not as an integral process according to the complexity required but as a service delivery indifferent to the difficulty and multiplicity of the interactions existing between the parties involved and developed activities. This approach may result in the achievement of a sub-optimal global solution, the noncompliance of the defined targets, the increase of the final costs for one or several parties or, in the worst case, the project failure. The methodology outlined in this document offers a new way of conducting the management of deep renovation projects, defining the barriers and challenges that the building construction industry should address.

Download the report – October, 18 2019

Please note that this report has been submitted to the EC but its content has not yet been approved.

BUSINESS MODELS

Business models are fed with the technologies and the methodologies. They drive the investors in deep renovation, supporting them while identifying the level of risk of the renovation process and enabling well-founded investments supported by tailor-made financial tools.

TO IDENTIFY THE LEVEL OF RISK AND
TO ENABLE WELL-FOUNDED INVESTMENTS

Cost-effectiveness Rating System

A reliable energy/economic model clearly explaining the level of risks and failures in the renovation chain, allowing the different stakeholders (in particular investors) to evaluate risk of investment, responsibilities, achievable performance results and relative uncertainty, as well as related costs.

Related report

Easy-to-use cost effectiveness rating system

A barrier for building owners and investors about to embark on a deep-renovation project is often uncertainty about which technology choices may fit with their building and, in particular, with their specific preferences. One of the core pieces of the 4RinEU project is, hence, a multicriteria ranking tool that shall guide users early in their decision process. This technical note accompanies the implemented ranking-tool prototype and de-scribes its background and usage. It also describes requirements on the underlying repository that assembles most of the information processed in the tool. The tool described in this deliverable is to be intended as a proof of concept. Individuals interested in testing it may request a trial version by writing to the following address: 4RinEU@eurac.edu

Download the report – November 27, 2020

Please note that this report has been submitted to the EC but its content has not yet been approved.