Volume 47

A Comprehensive Analysis to Identify the Potential of Integrating Energy-efficient Retrofit Strategies to Enhance Building Sustainability in Sri Lanka’s Warm-Humid Warm-Dry Climate Condition Pathum Senevirathne, Can Wang

Abstract

A sustainable city strategy is crucial to combat climate change, as buildings contribute significantly to carbon emissions and energy source depletion. Buildings account for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 25% of water, and 40% of resource use. A sustainable city strategy involves retrofitting existing buildings to make them green and energy-efficient by reducing carbon emissions and promoting a more sustainable future. However, developing countries like Sri Lanka are reluctant to adopt energy-efficient retrofitting solutions due to several factors, including a lack of awareness and misconceptions about the costs outweighing the benefits over the building’s life cycle. To dispel these misconceptions, this paper aims to establish a comprehensive analysis framework to guide stakeholders in setting an optimal technical combination of energy-efficient retrofit measures for a selected commercial building in Sri Lanka. DesignBuilder software is used to simulate energy performance by analyzing technical features such as insulation, shading, and lighting. The optimal configuration for assessing its environmental and economic impact is determined through life cycle analysis, energy performance assessment, and cost-benefit analysis, integrated with carbon taxing and future energy price scenarios. This study reveals that the optimal retrofitting of buildings could reduce total energy consumption by around 26.79%, environmental impact by around 25% and their payback period was around 17.33 years, while LED lighting has the highest impact on energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impact on the building, while retrofitting the building envelope also brings considerable environmental impact and around 7% energy saving. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that insulation is less efficient in Warm-Humid and Warm-Dry environments than in other area types. This framework for sustainable-comprehensive analysis provides theoretical and practical support and can serve as a reference for future studies on different scenarios.

Keywords Sustainable city strategy, Cost-benefit analysis, Life cycle assessment, Energy-efficient retrofitting, Carbon taxing, DesignBuilder software