Abstract/Summary

Buildings account for over 40% of CO2 emissions in the UK and around 25% in China. In an attempt to mitigate global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the UK Government is committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below the 1990’s level by 2050; China pledged a 40–45% decrease in CO2 emissions per GDP by 2020 against 2005 levels. To achieve these targets, building retrofitting is one of the efficient ways to improve building energy efficiency and the associated CO2 emissions. This study aims to assess two levels of deep retrofit plans in typical office buildings in order to evaluate the potential energy savings that can be achieved,. These retrofit scenarios are assessed using numerical simulation of the prototypical buildings in five climate zones in China as well as London and Aberdeen in the UK. Numerical simulations have been conducted using the EnergyPlus software. The outcomes of this study reveal that deep retrofit in office buildings can potentially achieve the target of 50% energy reduction compared with the source energy consumption of buildings designed in 1980(s). However, economic factors should be also considered in the process of decision making to choose the most appropriate building retrofit strategies.