A flexible methodology to integrate energy issue in strategic asset management in social housing: the ECOSIM French experience

Panel: Panel 4. Residential and commercial sectors: delivering lower energy use in buildings

Authors:
Bruno Lacarrière, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France
Bernard Bourges, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France
Paul Jallet, Le Toit Angevin, France

Abstract

In order to improve the efforts to reduce energy use in the Social Housing sector, the IEE-ESAM project (completed in December 2008) aimed to develop adequate tools to integrate the issue of energy in strategic asset management (SAM) processes. The present work details a methodology built with the aim of a sufficient flexibility to be adaptable of the different Social Housing Operators (SHO) situations. The paper illustrates this methodology by a successful experience of development.

The objective was to develop a tool satisfying the practical expectations of the Social Housing Operators. Examples of the difficulties that had to be overcome include difficulties in knowing in detail some technical properties of the housing stock (thermal properties, glazing properties, history of refurbishment) and lack of internal skills in thermal modelling to evaluate the different possible actions.

The final tool developed can be used for one particular building, a set of buildings or at the whole stock scale. The tool does not use an integrated thermal calculation core but external databases and/or feedback based on experience. It offers a description of the energy performance level of the stock, points out the worst-performing elements, evaluates solutions to improve the energy performance (for building envelopes and equipments) and quantifies the gains (energy and carbon saved, financial) and the costs (investment) of these solutions. The tool assists the SHO in taking decisions (regarding priorities for investment) which include energy efficiency parameters in addition to classical SAM parameters.

The success of the approach has been demonstrated by the SHO that manages the stock used as a field test for this project. They are currently using the tool developed from the methodology to plan stock investment actions.