A case study of energy efficiency retrofit and renewable technology utilisation in a UK schools group

This paper presents a study on assessment for energy efficiency by utilizing a series of renewable technologies in Loughborough Endowed Schools (LES) refurbishments. In the assessment, economic evaluation of energy saving measures was also considered. In light of inefficient energy usage issues identified in the LES project, five measures including internal wall insulation, double glazing, combined heat and power, heat recovery ventilation and PV were chosen and investigated in the simulation by using software packages EnergyPlus and PVSyst. Three representing buildings, which are historic brick building (Boarding House), modern education building (LHS Science Building) and special functional building (Swimming Pool) were simulated as examples to investigate every measure and technology adopted. The results were compared with the original energy consumption. In terms of traditional brick wall building, it has been found in this research that internal wall insulation and double glazing played significant improvement on energy performance. Changing traditional ventilation to heat recovery ventilation in swimming pool and using high performance unit CHP were strong suggested. However, PV presented less saving compared with others. The economic evaluation involved simple payback period, net present value, internal rate of return, levelised cost of energy and benefit-to-cost ratio. The results showed that over the 15-year analysis, combined heat and power, Heat recovery ventilation and photovoltaics were financially feasible, while internal wall insulation was only viable over a longer period.