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The development of a robust and improved assessment framework, assessing Building Energy Intensity (BEI) and cost benefit in Malaysia
In the past few decades, there has been a great increase in energy demand worldwide, consequently, there is a major concern about the exhaustion of energy resources as well as the environmental impact. Malaysia, which is one of the fastest-growing regions in southeast Asia, has experienced a steady energy growth since 1990; with a 2.5% growth in energy demand predicted for 2011 to 2035 听(Lau et al., 2016). This trend has continued as Energy Commission Malaysia indicates commercial buildings consumed a high percentage of total energy use, accounting for more than a third (32.7%) in the country in 2013. A large portion of that energy was contributed by office buildings. Therefore, the design of high performance and energy-efficiency office buildings is crucial for Malaysia to reduce energy demand.听
It has been found that optimisation tools significantly enhance design performance. However, the process of designing an energy-efficient building is complex. In optimisation building design using simulation approach, analysts often deal with uncertainty during various steps of the optimisation, resulting in uncertain optimal solutions. The uncertainties that may arise from design variables are such areas as the climate, building operation, building performance criteria, noise in the cost function, vagueness in variables constraints, etc (Nguyen,Reiter and Rigo, 2014). Therefore, optimal solutions must not only satisfy the requirement of building performance but should be robust to capture small deviations of optimisation inputs and constraints.
This research aims to develop and improve a model of robust energy assessment framework, using multi-objective and optimisation and uncertainty analysis to predict Building Energy Index (BEI) and cost-benefit for Malaysia鈥檚 built environment. This research will integrate performance-based approach; the NABERS energy assessment framework and operational characteristic, outlined by Building Energy Technical Guideline (BETG), MS 1525 and ASHRAE 90.1; assessing building envelope design and to formulate a holistic energy performance robust framework in Malaysia that will aid as a focused design decision making tool for specific stakeholders. This research will assess the uncertainties of several office building architypes that vary in terms of size, type, geometry and envelope design using the application of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm for multi-objective design and uncertainty analysis to identify robust Pareto solutions. This approach enables a comprehensive analysis of the energy performance of specific non-domestic typologies buildings that were previously actioned, 听using predefined operational settings and uncalibrated simulation techniques. The methodological approach will be useful to investigate the impact of uncertainties such as climate and operational performance on the existing building stock, 听as well as closing the performance gap, reflecting Malaysia as a local setting.