SO1. To develop a comprehensive, accurate and accessible Refurbishment Assessment process

SO1.1 To develop refurbishment scenarios customized to end user needs, applicable to a wide variety of residential buildings. The ReCO2ST project will provide refurbishment options integrated in a specific scenario per user requirements. Apart from technological input, the DSS (decision support system) will also facilitate financial and timing-related decision making.

SO1.2 To establish a systemic and holistic renovation assessment tool through the integration of existing individual modules into the integrated NZEB Refurbishment Assessment Tools (RAT). The purpose is to swiftly and accurately inform the building owner of the renovations options, empower their decision making at an early stage through efficient and customizable scenarios and offer stakeholders the possibility to assess and control cost, energy and environmental performance, system possibilities and IEQ.

SO2. To design a method for accurate Refurbishment Planning, reducing the time, cost and complexity of the process

SO2.1 To reduce the cost of NZEB refurbishment through the identification of the optimal balance point between building energy efficiency and on site renewable energy generation (least-cost approach). A Least-Cost strategy will be developed in order to cost-optimize building renovation, balancing energy efficiency and energy supply from on-site generation and other sources. The advantages of larger scale (neighborhood & district) refurbishment and the impacts on the urban microclimate will be identified and integrated in the business plan.

SO2.2 To enable accelerated decision making and refurbishment operations through implementation of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). Early involvement of the primal stakeholders as well as the decrease of installation time requested will be addressed using the Integrated Project Delivery approach. In this respect is essential and should include all the main actors, the constructor and the owner from the beginning of the project, contractually, theoretical IPD will be formulated and the associated advantages will be compiled and presented as best practices for the construction industry as well as fully implemented and demonstrated at the Cadiz demo site.

SO3.To deploy an integrated Retrofit-Kit that will achieve NZEB (near Zero Energy Building) refurbishment in a wide variety of refurbishment scenarios and occupant behaviors

SO3.1 To deploy retrofit kit featuring innovative technologies for NZEB refurbishment. Technologies with a strong innovation potential and wide applicability will be integrated in a Retrofit-Kit, which will be deployed at the test sites. The kit will feature:

1. New lightweight VIPs
2. Smart windows
3. Solar technologies
4. Low energy HVAC systems controlled by sensor network.
5. Cool materials
6. Nature based technologies (NBTs) for IEQ

The integration of these technologies in four personalized Retrofit-Kits will be conducted.

SO3.2 To ensure realization of energy saving measures and intelligent building interaction with the energy system. The retrofit kit will prescribe particular building technologies that provide both demand response potential (flexibility) and energy savings. The demand response services can be facilitated from HVAC assets and on site generation scheduling and responsiveness and include either direct grid services through an aggregator or reaction to dynamic electricity pricing from a utility.

SO3.3 To cultivate energy-conscious inhabitant behavior through streamlined and intuitive energy management. The Intelligent Energy Management System (IEMS) will feature improved visualization aspects for inhabitant communication and control that will streamline energy and IEQ control but also easily collect user feedback regarding comfort.

SO3.4 To ensure a healthy, safe and comfortable indoor environment for the user/client. To achieve a healthy and comfortable indoor environment, a set of KPIs has been identified, and will be consolidated in the early stages of the project. NBT air treatment systems will support the cleaning of volatile organic compounds in the indoor air and increase the comfort factor due to pleasant humidity conditions and not at only aesthetic effects.

GO1. To make NZEB refurbishment accessible through novel customizable and timing-sensitive business models. One of the main goals is to motivate stakeholders/owners to make the right decision at the right time in order to optimize the energy efficiency and the investments benefits by bringing to the involved stakeholders/owners individual scenarios containing every required technical step in the right sequence of implementation taking into account suitable financing scheme for the given situation and stakeholder requirement or strategic goals.

GO2. To achieve substantial improvements of urban microclimate and overall quality of life. Renovation operations will improve inhabitant quality of life, health and productivity with interventions on interior but also exterior environments. Cost efficient nature based solutions will be developed and implemented. Building shapes and local wind patterns will be studied to optimize decision making in the HVAC department, in order to facilitate diffusion of air pollutants, reduce energy use for ventilation and cooling.

GO3. To ensure that the activities and results of the project adhere to EU and member state legislations and regulations and to identify and incorporate in the methodology EU and national refurbishment incentives. The ReCO2ST Consortium is dedicated to delivering exploitable results that will follow EU and national regulations and directives and adhere to relevant standards.

GO4. To demonstrate the replicability of the proposed solution through demonstration in varying scenarios. The ReCO2ST system (assessment, planning and operations) will be demonstrated through the refurbishment across four sites in Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK covering a wide spectrum of climatic. Furthermore, significant opportunity of transferring and expanding the solution from residential into commercial buildings has been identified.

GO5. To reduce redundancy and promote synergy between parallel EU funded actions with the same goals.

The ReCO2ST Consortium will approach relevant EU funded initiatives in the areas of building renovation to: (i) Share best practices with regards to NZEB renovation through a Best Practice Handbook (ii) Develop common infrastructure, especially with regards to the DSS and the RAT platform where interoperability and data exchange are crucial factors and (iii) Share Risk Mitigation and Contingency measures, as well as regulatory and legislative parameters.

NZEB residential building still has fuzzy definition across Europe. This is more true for renovations where the existing condition of the building might prohibit the achievement of specific targets. In addition, the EPBD, acknowledging the variety in building culture and climate throughout the EU, does not prescribe a uniform approach for implementing nearly Zero-Energy Buildings and neither does it describe a calculation methodology for the energy balance, leaving this to specifically designed national plans17. The recent update proposal for EPBD recast18 refers to cost-effective approaches to renovations relevant to the building type and climatic zone and the importance of the indoor environment linked to national or regional levels and specification. In this context KPIs are suggested below divided to:

1. Energy efficiency
2. Economics
3. Environmental and
4. Health and Comfort (proposed as ranges and to be cross referenced with national and regional regulations).