Multi-dwelling refurbishment optimization: problem decomposition, solution and trade-off analysis

A methodology has been developed for the multiobjective optimization of the refurbishment of domestic building stock on a regional scale. The approach is based on the decomposition of the problem into two stages: first to find the energy-cost trade-off for individual houses, and then to apply it tomultiple houses. The approach has been applied to 759 dwellings using buildings data from a survey of the UK housing stock. The energy use of each building and their refurbished variants were simulated using EnergyPlus using automatically-generated input files. The variation in the contributing refurbishment options from least to highest cost along the Pareto front shows loft and cavity wall insulation to be optimal intially, and solid wall insulation and double glazing appearing later.