Building Retrofit Proposal .

Building Retrofit Proposal 1
BUILDING RETROFIT PROPOSAL
By (Name)
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

Building Retrofit Proposal 2
Introduction
Building retrofit refers to addition of new features to a building to increase the overall
performance of a building or its appearance.
Retrofit measures are grouped into three categories:
1. Building fabric retrofitting
2. Services retrofitting
3. Behavior
Building fabric retrofitting
A building fabric constitutes the structural elements of a building that separate the building’s
interior from the exterior environment. They include; floors, walls, doors, windows, ceilings and
roofs.The building fabric creates a thermal envelope for the building and so measures that
involve retrofitting the fabric involve improvement of the performance of the insulation and the
restriction of uncontrolled movement of air (Ascione, et al., 2017). There are various retrofitting
techniques for each component of the building fabric. Some are discussed below.
Walls
 The insulation of cavity, internal and external walls.
 Cladding of external and internal walls

Building Retrofit Proposal 3
Roof
 Insulation of roof
 Installation of ventilation systems
Openings
 Replacement of doors with high performance substitutes or draught proofing
 Draught proofing of windows or double-glazing of the windows
 Making operable of window shutters
Floors
 Insulation of the existing floors
Services retrofitting
This refers to the equipment or systems in a building that provide heating, water, air supply,
power and lighting or the supply of energy (Birkeland, 2009). They are also referred to as fixed
services
The retrofitting techniques used for these systems include:
Ventilation
 Use of natural ventilation to reduce heating and cooling requirements.

Building Retrofit Proposal 4
Lighting system
Installation of a modern system of lighting that incorporates sensors, smart controls, and use of
energy efficient LED lighting technology (Caputo & Pasetti, 2015).
Energy consumption
 Use of passive cooling and heating to replace air conditioning
 Installation of renewable energy systems like photovoltaic, wind energy, and micro
hydropower
Water consumption
 Upgrading of water systems to minimize consumption
 Installation of water harvesting systems
 Insulation of hot water distribution systems like pipes and cylinders to reduce energy
loss.
 Installation of meters to track the usage of utilities like water, gas and electricity
Behavior
This involves the occupants’ usage of the building and their impact on the energy requirements.
This measure aims to increase the awareness of users towards energy efficiency (Caputo &
Pasetti, 2015). Building occupants vary in their usage of the building and this measure ensures
they are conscious of the retrofit measures inculcated in the spaces they use.

Building Retrofit Proposal 5
Choice of retrofit measure
CASE STUDY
STENGARDS SCHOOL, Denmark
Site details
Location; Stengards
Elevation; 21metres above sea level
Climatic zone: zone 5A
Before retrofit
Figure 1: STENGARDS SCHOOL, Denmark
Source: (Ben & Steemers, 2014)

Building Retrofit Proposal 6
After retrofit
Figure 2: STENGARDS SCHOOL, Denmark
Source: (Ben & Steemers, 2014)
Building information
Type; school building
Age; the building was constructed between 1970 and 1978 (Chung & Rhee, 2014). It is
comprises a compact plan of three blocks connected by a cover corridor.
Architectural drawing