Integration of Renewable Energies to Convert University Commercial Buildings to Net-Zero Energy Buildings

This work presents the feasibility of converting existing buildings to Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB), aiming to increase the integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs). Three buildings Office Building (N54), Engineering Laboratory (N44) and Residential Building (N24) are considered as the experimental candidates with different modes of operation. A baseline model N78, an operating NZEB is considered to calculate the energy budget of the candidate buildings. The energy budget provided the target to be achieved and the design variables to be considered. After the analysis of the integrated performance of the buildings, feasibility of the NZEBs was validated. The energy budget calculation done for the simulated results show that the integrating of the RESs in the buildings results in buildings N54 and N24 having higher feasibility and N44 lower feasibility for conversion to NZEB.