BIM-based interoperable workflow for energy improvement of school buildings over the life cycle

Simulation and predictive models to verify the energy performance of new or retrofitted existing buildings strongly need tuning procedures based on energy monitoring in the operational phase, thus to avoid performance gap concerns. The value chain of an uninterrupted information for energy models based on design data (e.g. for new buildings) or on paper documents and additional surveys (e.g. for existing buildings) is crucial to perform a reliable design optioneering process. The present research applies a BIM2BEM approach to provide a public administration with a model for facility management (i.e. BIM) and a model to assess energy improvement and check the choices (i.e. BEM), as a pilot project on school buildings renovation. Schools are frequently out-of-date buildings in harsh need of structural and energy refurbishment and public administrations require consistent economic evaluations considering the payback time of the proposed solutions. Additionally, O&M (Operation & Maintenance) costs should be included in a life cycle evaluation of the buildings. Two schools with different layouts and configuration adopted as case studies to compare energy simulation to actual consumption. The workflow empowers the energy simulation results highlighting the accuracy of energy modelling in different situations and it introduces possible tuning strategies to decrease uncertainty.