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Through this study, the analysis of 6 types of plaster suitable for the rehabilitation of historical monuments is proposed. The proposed types of plaster have superior thermal insulating properties compared to commonly used plaster. The study is purely theoretical and aims to compare the efficiency of each type of plaster when applied as a rehabilitation solution to a case study building. The case study building is an historical building located in Timisoara for which classical facade insulation system cannot be applied due to its historical status. Their analysis and comparison will be carried out from an economic perspective, thermal transfer and water vapour behaviour and impact on the energy consumption of the building. The purpose is to identify the solution that is the most cost-effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Creating sustainable income, enhancing economic perspectives, optimizing and managing costs, and generating revenue in the health system—especially in hospitals, which are primary providers of medical services—are critically important. These have become priority, vital policies. This study was conducted to compare the recorded costs in patient files with the approved global tariffs for surgeries at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Kermanshah. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Imam Khomeini Educational and Therapeutic Hospital in Kermanshah in 2022. The research population included financial records for surgeries under the global tariff, covering the last six months of 2020 and the first six months of 2021. Data were collected from the Hospital Information System (HIS) and analyzed using SPSS-22 software. Results: Among 357 cases involving 13 types of surgeries reviewed in this study, tonsillectomy, pterygium, and appendectomy surgeries resulted in losses, while other surgeries were profitable. Considering the average actual cost of each surgery, in 14% of the surgeries, the global tariff was lower than the average actual cost, while in 86% of cases, the global tariff proved beneficial to the hospital. Conclusion: Although most centers that apply the global surgery tariff are financially unprofitable, implementing operational plans based on essential resources and designing corrective actions to reduce global costs—particularly by managing patient length of stay—can improve efficiency and productivity.

Investment decisions on demolition and reconstruction vs. refurbishment of the existing building stock can extend beyond financial and economic criteria. However, they must involve energy savings, environmental preservation, material consumption, and waste management for sustainable cities. The regulatory framework used in the past decades and the correlated research seem more unbalanced toward the containment of building energy consumption than toward embodied energy (EE) management in production processes and environmental impact management. Foreshadowing the perspective of a more restrictive regulatory framework on EE, such as prohibiting the displacement of materials with residual energy potential, such as waste in landfills, some challenging frontier issues are involved when facing the limits of the economic evaluation methodologies for transformation projects. Thus, this study aimed to propose a reasoning and an operative modality to support urban governance policies and investment decisions involving private and public subjects in the construction sector. Circular economy and life cycle thinking principles, through life cycle costing (LCC) and life cycle assessment (LCA), are assumed and harmonized with the discounted cash-flow analysis (DCFA): (1) monetizing and modeling into the DCFA the EE and the embodied carbon (EC); (2) internalizing the Global Cost and the new ‘Global Benefit’ into the net present value (NPV) calculation; and (3) focusing on the residual end-of-life value calculation from the early design and investment decision stages. The reasoning can be extended to single buildings, the urban scale, or even entire portions of existing buildings in urban areas concerning typological sub-segments. The operative modality is yet to be explored in a concrete application for orienting urban governance policies and sustainable public–private partnerships, including environmental and, thus, social externalities even in the private real estate investment decision process, in the scope of evolving regulations.

Featured Application: This paper focuses on a technical–economic–environmental assessment methodology, based on a life cycle assessment, of photovoltaic-powered charging stations (PVCS) dedicated for electric vehicles (EVs). The PVCS includes PV sources, charging terminals, stationary batteries' storage, and public grid connection. The proposed methodology is detailed through two tasks. The first one is the calculation of the global cost of the PVCS under 30 years of lifespan. The second task is dedicated to the assessment of the global carbon impact of the PVCS, in addition to the different actions proposed to reduce the carbon impact compared to a charging station based only on the power grid. To deal with the issue of climate change by moving towards sustainable development, electric mobility is one of the most beneficial approaches, offering users relatively low-carbon transport means. Based on a life cycle assessment, this paper investigates a calculation methodology of carbon impact and global cost for a photovoltaic-powered charging station (PVCS) for electric vehicles (EVs). The PVCS is equipped with a PV system, stationary storage, charging terminals, and connection with the power grid. This methodology has two main objectives. The first one is the estimation of the global cost of the PVCS under 30 years of lifespan, including the costs of investment, exploitation, maintenance, and externalities. The second one is the calculation and assessment of the carbon impact of the PVCS and comparing it with a grid-powered charging station (PGCS). According to the analysis of the results obtained, the carbon impact of the PV system is largely responsible for the global carbon impact of PVCS. Thus, levers of action and scenarios are proposed to reduce the global carbon impact by using more recent data and recycled materials for the most emitting elements of CO2. The proposed scenarios allowed a reduction in the carbon impact of the PVCS compared to the PGCS, where scenario 4 has the lowest carbon impact. For recent PV panels having a greatly reduced emission coefficient of 0.012 kgCO2,eq/kWh, and a recycled infrastructure, the PVCS has a 32.1% lower carbon impact than that of the PGCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is dedicated to the technical and economic analysis of air-conditioning solutions for office buildings. În this paper two air conditioning systems were compared: the variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system and the chiller-fan coil system. Comparison of the technical and economic indicators was done using the "global cost" method. As a result of the analysis, it was found that: the energy saving in the air conditioning system to a great extent depends on building design solutions and the type of air conditioning system

Data-driven black-box surrogate models are widely used in research related to buildings energy efficiency. They are based on machine learning techniques, learn from available data, and act as a replacement for or an addition to complex and computationally intensive knowledge-based models. Surrogate models can predict energy demand, indoor air temperature, or occupants behavior, explore search space in optimization problems, learn control rules, etc. This paper analyzes surrogate models that classify building retrofit measures directly according to the global cost. In addition, they quantify the importance of each variable for the classification process. The models are based on random forest classifiers, which are fast and powerful ensemble learners. They can be applied to effectively reduce search spaces when optimizing energy renovation measures or to rapidly identify projects that deserve financial support. This approach is applied to two residential buildings and three scenarios of price development. The training process uses a small share of retrofit options assessed with standard calculations of the heating and cooling demands, as well as the global cost. The results show very high classification performance, even when the models are trained with small and imbalanced training sets. The obtained recall, precision, and F-score values are mostly above 95%, except for extremely small training sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To deal with the issue of climate change by moving towards sustainable development, electric mobility is one of the most beneficial approaches, offering users relatively low-carbon transport means. Based on a life cycle assessment, this paper investigates a calculation methodology of carbon impact and global cost for a photovoltaic-powered charging station (PVCS) for electric vehicles (EVs). The PVCS is equipped with a PV system, stationary storage, charging terminals, and connection with the power grid. This methodology has two main objectives. The first one is the estimation of the global cost of the PVCS under 30 years of lifespan, including the costs of investment, exploitation, maintenance, and externalities. The second one is the calculation and assessment of the carbon impact of the PVCS and comparing it with a grid-powered charging station (PGCS). According to the analysis of the results obtained, the carbon impact of the PV system is largely responsible for the global carbon impact of PVCS. Thus, levers of action and scenarios are proposed to reduce the global carbon impact by using more recent data and recycled materials for the most emitting elements of CO2. The proposed scenarios allowed a reduction in the carbon impact of the PVCS compared to the PGCS, where scenario 4 has the lowest carbon impact. For recent PV panels having a greatly reduced emission coefficient of 0.012 kgCO2,eq/kWh, and a recycled infrastructure, the PVCS has a 32.1% lower carbon impact than that of the PGCS.

Learning ability has been associated with energetic costs that typically become apparent through trade-offs in a wide range of developmental, physiological, and life-history traits. Costs associated with learning ability can be either constitutive or induced, depending on whether they are always incurred or only when information is actively learned and memorized. Using lines of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis that were selected for fast associative learning ability, we assessed a range of traits that have previously been identified as potential costs associated with learning. No difference in longevity, lipid reserves, tibia length, egg load, or fecundity was observed between the selected and control lines. All of these traits are considered to potentially lead to constitutive costs in the setup of this study. A gradual reversal to baseline learning after two forms of relaxed selection was indicative of a small constitutive cost of learning ability. We also tested for a trade-off with other memory types formed at later stages, but found no evidence that the mid-term memory that was selected for caused a decrease in performance of other memory types. In conclusion, we observe only one minor effect of a constitutive cost and none of the other costs and trade-offs that are reported in the literature to be of significant value in this case. We, therefore, argue for better inclusion of ecological and economic costs in studies on costs and benefits of learning ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Assessment of a new methodology framework for the building design optimization. • Evaluation of energy efficiency measures for a multi-family building. • Optimal solutions integrating measures for building envelope, energy systems and renewables. • Assessment of a method to verify the optimization algorithm stability. Abstract In the context of European efforts to reduce energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in the building sector, the second recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive promotes the acceleration of the energy renovation of European building stock. To do this, a cost optimization is necessary to find the best combination of energy efficiency measures which minimize the global cost during the entire life-cycle of the building, as suggested in the first recast of the same Directive. Since a great number of combinations must be analyzed, an automated procedure is necessary to reduce the calculation time. In this work, an iterative input-output process is set, thanks to the coupling of a dynamic energy simulation software (TRNSYS) and a generic optimization software (GenOpt). The cost optimization is applied to a new social housing construction – a multi-family building located in Northern Italy. The methodology that was adopted allows the simultaneous optimization of both the building energy demand (building envelope) and the building energy supply (technical systems and renewable sources). Results are compared with those obtained using a more widespread sequential approach whose purpose is firstly the optimization of one of these two factors, and subsequently the optimization of the other one. This study has demonstrated that an integrated approach allows a larger number of possible combinations of energy efficiency measures to be explored with respect to the sequential approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries request to adopt measures for improving the buildings energy efficiency, for reducing the carbon emissions and for increasing the renewable energy use. The paper presents tools and procedures to support decision making according to the IEA-EBC Annex 56 project, “Cost-Effective Energy and Carbon Emissions Optimization in Building Renovation”. The first part of the paper describes the methodology proposed by the Annex for maximizing effects on reducing carbon emissions and primary energy use while considering the cost-effectiveness of related measures that consists in comparing renovation packages based on the results of a life cycle cost assessment. The optimization process focuses on the overall added values achieved in a renovation process, which means to identify the global quality improvement and further additional benefits (here called co-benefits) like comfort improvement (thermal, natural lighting, indoor air quality, acoustics, etc.), that allow to increase the value of the building. The second part describes the A56opt-tool, the tool developed (an excel file) as support for calculations based on the Annex 56 methodology in order to compare and to evaluate different packages of renovation measures. The kind of information needed as input, how to fill it in the worksheet and the whole process for optimization focus on the single output of each calculation till the identification of the optimal solution are also described. The last part presents the application of the methodology and calculation of the project in a case study, in order to show step by step the operative calculation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of cost effective solutions for the energy retrofitting of existing buildings is of capital importance for building asset owners, since high up-front investments are required and long payback times are encountered in building renovation projects. The aim of the work is to propose a decision support system (DSS) for the assessment of different renovation strategies through the measure of their economic sustainability in relation to the achieved energy efficiency. The cost optimal analysis of energy retrofit alternatives is performed in the case of a large housing stock owned by a semi-public real estate company, with the goal of meeting nearly zero energy building standards. Energy performances as well as related energy and construction costs are analysed for different retrofit options, adopting Italian laws and regulations. The proposed DSS evaluates the economic sustainability of various design alternatives with the net present value (NPV) and the global cost (GC), as suggested by the EPBD recast EU directive. These indicators are finally compared with the building energy performance index (EP), providing the most efficient design alternatives for each building typology and the most advantageous renovation project among the considered ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of urbanization in China inevitably leads to a sharp increase in building energy consumption, and Passive House (PH) have received much attention in China in recent years. In this paper, the annual energy demand (AED) and summer discomfort hours (SUH) of PH are used as optimization objectives to establish a set of design solutions for multi-objective optimization (MTO) and economic analysis of a PH in Shandong Province, China. It is found that (1) the algorithm based on nearest neighbor component analysis (NCA) feature extraction applies to the sensitivity analysis of multivariate nonlinear high-dimensional data, and the NCA-GA-RBF neural network technique is proposed, which has significantly improved the goodness of fit and generalization ability for AED and SUH. (2) The NSGA-II genetic algorithm is used for the optimization search, and the results show that the overall improvement rates of AED and SUH are 25.5% and 21.6%, respectively, among the nine solutions after comprehensive evaluation; (3) Finally, the optimal scheme of energy saving and the optimal scheme of the economy are selected for economic evaluation. By comparing the economics of the two options and the improvement rates of AEDs and SUHs, the guidelines for design decision-makers are provided. In summary, the design scheme of this paper is forward-looking and reference-oriented and provides some reference suggestions for the development of PH in China. • The NCA algorithm is suitable for multivariate nonlinear sensitivity analysis. • NCA-GA-RBF has stronger and more stable generalization ability and accuracy. • In this paper, climate is the main factor affecting thermal parameters. • Global costs have a stronger economic interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding cost-optimal solutions towards nearly-zero energy buildings in accordance with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is a challenging task. In order to reach the 20-20-20 targets, EU energy policy has introduced new ambitious levels for the large-scale spread of nearly-zero energy buildings (nZEBs) and the concept of the cost-optimal level, defined as the energy performance level, which leads to the lowest cost during the estimated economic lifecycle of the building. Consequently, building design has begun a challenge involving both energy targets and economic concerns. The aim of this research is to analyze an example building of a new single family house, using the cost-optimal methodology, in order to define how energy and economic aspects influence the preliminary design phase of the project and, in particular, the choice of the performance features of some components of the project itself, such as envelope elements and systems. The impact on energy performances of different configurations for the building envelope and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems was assessed with the dynamic simulation software EnergyPlus. Finally, the costs of the different design scenarios were estimated, according to the European Standard EN 15459:2007 to establish which of them had the lowest global cost and, consequently, represents the cost-optimal level for the design configurations analyzed. In order to test the stability of the results obtained, different sensitivity analyses were carried out.

The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology for supporting decision making in design activities; in case of new projects or retrofitting of existing buildings. A multidisciplinary approach is adopted; involving Real Estate Appraisal and Economic Evaluation of Project and Building Environmental Design. It is proposed a methodology for selecting the preferable solutions among technological options; considering both economic and environmental aspects; in terms of global performance. Assuming the principles of Life Cycle Thinking and Circular Economy focus is posed at the end-of-life stage. Attention is paid on disposal costs and residual value as relevant items enable to orient investment decisions. This is done through an approach for quantifying environmental indicators related to Life Cycle Assessment (Standard ISO 14040:2006); and economic indicators adopting the Life Cycle Costing (Standard ISO 15686:2008). The paper proposes a conjoint "economic-environmental indicator". An application of Global Cost calculation is illustrated; including monetized environmental impacts (Embodied energy and Embodied carbon); disposal/dismantling costs and residual value. The result of the Global Cost calculation is expressed through a "synthetic economic-environmental indicator" in order to select; between two different technologies; the most viable solution for a multifunctional building glass façade project; in Northern Italy. The study demonstrates that the initial investment decisions depend on the design solutions; since the early stages; related to the whole building life cycle considering conjointly the construction-management phases and the end-of-life stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenge facing the achievement of nZE standards in existing buildings is the economic issue: the evidence of monetary gains of energy savings facing high investment costs seems still rather limited to the investors’ eyes. In this context, LCC methods have gained much importance in recent years. However, they present a limitation due to the notable simplifications and hypothesis usually made for input parameters that may affect the results. In order to overcome this limit, this work suggests a probabilistic LCC based on uncertainty and sensitivity analysis via Monte Carlo methods and illustrates it through a building case study under several retrofit scenarios sighting the target nZE. The methodology allows investigating the economic effectiveness of alternative measures, giving insight into possible ranges of the economic indicator related to a specific design option. The analysis is focused on a micro-economic dimension and based on the availability and reliability of inputs data and on their proper characterization with Probability Density Functions. Variance-based methods for sensitivity analysis are employed to establish the most influential parameters on output uncertainty. The paper demonstrates the potentials of a probabilistic LCC in providing a more realistic decision support about investments for energy efficient projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to highlight the potentialities for supporting the decision making process and design activities, for the case of retrofit projects with alternative technological solutions to compare. A multidisciplinary approach was adopted, involving the contribution of Real Estate Market and Economic Evaluation of Project, Architectural Technology and Building Physics.Asimplified application of the Life Cycle Costing methodology was used, in synergy with energy analyses, to select, among different scenarios,the most viable solution for theretrofitting projectof a single house in Northern Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims : To complete an initial estimate of the global cost of eliminating avoidable blindness, including the investment required to build ongoing primary and secondary health care systems, as well as to eliminate the ′backlog′ of avoidable blindness. This analysis also seeks to understand and articulate where key data limitations lie. Materials and Methods : Data were collected in line with a global estimation approach, including separate costing frameworks for the primary and secondary care sectors, and the treatment of backlog. Results : The global direct health cost to eliminate avoidable blindness over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2020 is estimated at $632 billion per year (2009 US$). As countries already spend $592 billion per annum on eye health, this represents additional investment of $397.8 billion over 10 years, which is $40 billion per year or $5.80 per person for each year between 2010 and 2020. This is concentrated in high-income nations, which require 68% of the investment but comprise 16% of the world′s inhabitants. For all other regions, the additional investment required is $127 billion. Conclusions : This costing estimate has identified that low- and middle-income countries require less than half the additional investment compared with high-income nations. Low- and middle-income countries comprise the greater investment proportion in secondary care whereas high-income countries require the majority of investment into the primary sector. However, there is a need to improve sector data. Investment in better data will have positive flow-on effects for the eye health sector.

Purpose : To describe preoperative factors, long-term (>3 years) postoperative outcome and cost of traumatic cataracts in children in predominantly rural districts of western India. Subjects : Eighty-two traumatic cataracts in 81 children in a pediatric ophthalmology department of a tertiary eye-care center. Materials and Methods : Traumatic cataracts operated in 2004-2008 were reexamined prospectively in 2010-2011 using standardized technique. Cause and type of trauma, demographic factors, surgical intervention, complications, and visual acuity was recorded. Statistical Analysis : Data analysis done by using SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) version 17.0 We have used Chi-square test, Fisher′s exact test, paired t-test to find the association between the final vision and various parameters at 5% level of significance; binary logistic regression was performed for visual outcome ≥6/18 and ≥6/60. Results : The children were examined in a 3-7 year follow-up (4.35 ± 1.54). Average age at time of surgery was 10.4 ± 4.43 years (1.03 to 18). Fifty (61.7%) were boys. Forty (48.8%) were blunt and 32 (39%) were sharp trauma. The most common cause was wooden stick 23 (28.0%) and sharp thorn 14 (17.1%). Delay between trauma and presentation to hospital ranged from same day to 12 years after the injury with median of 4 days. The mean preoperative visual acuity by decimal notation was 0.059 ± 0.073 and mean postoperative visual acuity was 0.483 ± 0.417 (P < 0.001). Thirty-eight (46.3%) had best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) ≥6/18 and 51 (62.2%) had BCVA ≥ 6/60. In univariable analysis, visual outcome (≥6/18) depended on type of surgery (P = 0.002), gender (P = 0.028), and type of injury (P = 0.07)-sharp trauma and open globe injury had poorer outcomes; but not on age of child, preoperative vision, and type of surgeon. On multivariable binary logistic regression, only gender was significant variable. Of the 82 eyes, 18 (22%) needed more than one surgery. The parents spent an average of Rs. 2250 ($45) for the surgery and 55 (66.4%) were from lower socio-economic class. Conclusion : The postoperative visual outcomes varied and less than half achieved ≥ 6/18.

Aim : This paper intends to discuss the patients′ perspective on the determinants of primary eye care services from vision centers (VC) in rural India. Materials and Methods : A retrospective study design and interview method was used on 127 randomly selected patients who accessed the 4 VCs in 2007. Factor analyses and linear regression models were used to predict the associations with patient satisfaction. Results : The three factors derived from factor analyses were: (1)-vision technician (VT), (2)-location of VC, and (3)-access to VC; explaining 60% of the variance in total patients′ satisfaction with VC. The first model (R2 : 0.61; F 1,124=144.36, P

Context : Globally, limited data are available on changing trends of blindness from a single region. Aims : To report the changing trends in the prevalence of blindness, visual impairment (VI), and visual outcomes of cataract surgery in a rural district of Andhra Pradesh, India, over period of one decade. Settings and Design : Rural setting; cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods : Using a validated Rapid Assessment of Cataract Surgical Services (RACSS) method, population-based, cross-sectional survey was done in a rural district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Two-stage sampling procedure was used to select participants ≥50 years of age. Further, a comparative analysis was done with participants ≥50 years from the previously concluded Andhra Pradesh Eye Disease Study (APEDS) study, who belonged to the same district. Statistical Analysis : Done using 11 th version of Stata. Results : Using RACSS, 2160/2300 (93.9%) participants were examined as compared with the APEDS dataset (n=521). Age and sex adjusted prevalence of blindness in RACSS and APEDS was 8% (95% CI, 6.9-9.1%) and 11% (95% CI, 8.3-13.7%), while that of VI was 13.6% (95% CI, 12.2-15.1%) and 40.3% (95% CI, 36.1-44.5%), respectively. Cataract was the major cause of blindness in both the studies. There was a significant reduction in blindness following cataract surgery as observed through RACSS (17.3%; 95% CI, 13.5-21.8%) compared with APEDS (34%; 95% CI, 20.9-49.3%). Conclusion : There was a significant reduction in prevalence of blindness and VI in this rural district of India over a decade.

An important number of publications is reporting results from health outcomes studies comparing atypical antipsychotics (AA) with typical neuroleptics (TN) over 1 year of observation. Our study has prolonged the period observation of the economical and social outcomes to 4 years: 31 patients with schizophrenia were observed retrospectively during two years of TN treatment and then followed during 2 more years of olanzapine treatment after naturalistic switch. The results show a general reduction of health care interventions (territory and hospital) during the olanzapine treatment period. Global costs during olanzapine treatment were lower than during TN treatment (10506 euros with TN vs 6193 euros with olanzapine over 2 years). The social outcome, measured through the registration of the number of working days in the two periods of the study (retrospective with TN and prospective with olanzapine), was better during olanzapine treatment, probably due to increased patient compliance to the rehabilitative activities offered by the Department of Mental Health. In our experience, olanzapine appeared to dominate TN treatment, as its higher acquisition costs were offset by the reduction of territorial and nosocomial health care interventions over two years of observation, and associated with higher involvement in rehabilitative and social activities.

This paper presents the results of a detailed method for developing cost-optimal studies for the energy refurbishment of residential buildings. The method takes part of an innovative approach: two-step evaluation considering thermal comfort, energy and economic criteria. The first step, the passive evaluation, was presented previously [1] and the results are used to develop the active evaluation, which is the focus of this paper. The active evaluation develops a cost-optimal analysis to compare a set of passive and active measures for the refurbishment of residential buildings. The cost-optimal methodology follows the European Directives and analysed the measures from the point of view of non-renewable primary energy consumption and the global costs over 30 years. The energy uses included in the study are heating, domestic hot water, cooling, lighting and appliances. In addition, the results have been represented following the energy labelling scale. The paper shows the results of a multi-family building built in the years 1990–2007 and located in Barcelona with two configurations: with natural ventilation and without natural ventilation. The method provides technical and economic information about the energy efficiency measures, with the objective to support the decision process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) introduced a comparative methodological framework for calculating cost-optimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements. The cost-optimal methodology, conceived for national authorities, was here exploited as a decision-making tool for supporting a private investor in choosing the most viable energy scenario. The methodology was thus used to evaluate different energy efficiency measures applied to an abandoned industrial building in Turin (Northern Italy) and to identify the best retrofit solution in terms of energy and costs. Providing guidance and tools for re-designing ex-industrial areas can be useful for several similar case studies widespread not only nearby Turin, but also in other Italian regions and EU countries. The research activity here presented aims at testing the cost-optimal methodology to support energy retrofit projects starting from an early design stage. The arisen issues may be considered for future applications, with reference to specific contexts. In this perspective, this work constitutes a first step towards the definition of an “environmental and economic sustainability equilibrium”, assuming that the application of models and approaches for evaluating both the energy-environmental performances and the economic ones, in many cases, may give very different results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology for supporting decision making in design activities; in case of new projects or retrofitting of existing buildings. A multidisciplinary approach is adopted; involving Real Estate Appraisal and Economic Evaluation of Project and Building Environmental Design. It is proposed a methodology for selecting the preferable solutions among technological options; considering both economic and environmental aspects; in terms of global performance. Assuming the principles of Life Cycle Thinking and Circular Economy focus is posed at the end-of-life stage. Attention is paid on disposal costs and residual value as relevant items enable to orient investment decisions. This is done through an approach for quantifying environmental indicators related to Life Cycle Assessment (Standard ISO 14040:2006); and economic indicators adopting the Life Cycle Costing (Standard ISO 15686:2008). The paper proposes a conjoint “economic-environmental indicator”. An application of Global Cost calculation is illustrated; including monetized environmental impacts (Embodied energy and Embodied carbon); disposal/dismantling costs and residual value. The result of the Global Cost calculation is expressed through a “synthetic economic-environmental indicator” in order to select; between two different technologies; the most viable solution for a multifunctional building glass façade project; in Northern Italy. The study demonstrates that the initial investment decisions depend on the design solutions; since the early stages; related to the whole building life cycle considering conjointly the construction-management phases and the end-of-life stage.

Nowadays in nZEB designing it is fundamental taking into account both the energy and the economic perspective right from the preliminary phases of the project. Success in realizing nZEB lies in finding the right balance between energy performances, architectural quality and costs, which include investment, maintenance and running costs, incurred by the project owner during a defined period. This paper analyzes CorTau House in terms of architectural aspects, energy performances and economic viability. It represents a significant Italian design experience in which the architectural quality of the refurbishment of a traditional rural building is combined with high-performing energy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]