Sensitivity analysis of building energy models due to the shading effect of surrounding buildings to support building renovation

Building energy simulation is an analytical process to help building owners and designers evaluate the energy performance of the building. Uncertainty in the building energy modelling influences the building renovation from two perspectives: 1) calculating as-built energy consumption, 2) analysing the energy performance of renovation alternatives. Energy models can enhance by incorporating contextual and surrounding data. To this aim, we conducted a systematic study to investigate the effect of surrounding buildings in different distances, heights, and orientations in studying the as-built energy consumption of an example building. The research also investigates the impact of a specific surrounding building on the energy performance of three different renovation alternatives, namely the modification of windows, external walls, and roofs. The results demonstrate that a higher height to distance ratio of the surrounding buildings influences the energy consumption more dramatically. In addition, a surrounding building located in the south direction causes more effect on the energy result than other directions when the building is in the northern hemisphere. For renovation scenarios, if there is a specific building in the south of the building under renovation, the window modification leads to less energy consumption than other renovation scenarios. The paper discusses that for renovation projects, an initial examination of surrounding buildings before selecting the renovation alternative is crucial; since different placements of surrounding buildings can affect the performance of renovation scenarios differently, which can cause a variation in the cost of renovation.