Investigation of impact of detached house buildings orientation on energy saving result of renovation scenarios and energy generation of installed PV panels in Växjö

Abstract: Most of the detached houses in Sweden were built more than 30 years ago, and most of them are oldand need a deep renovation. The renovation is an excellent opportunity to apply the energy measure witha combination of renewable energy such as PV solar, which could be a great option to reduce energyconsumption and contribute to reducing greenhouse emissions. For this reason, selecting effectiverenovation scenarios for buildings could be important and challenging. One of these challenges isapplying typical scenarios for one archetype's buildings. A building could be in the same archetypeswith similar geometry and properties but in different directions. In this study, the researcher aims toinvestigate the yearly heat demand energy saving of buildings from one archetype, the same renovationscenario, and the same area but in four different directions, 0-30-60-90 degrees from the south (casestudies).This project's additional aim is to examine the electricity generation from PV when installedon one and both sides for four houses in the same area in four different directions, 0-30-60-90 degreesfrom the south. Design Builder software was used as a graphical user interface through the Energy Plus engine. In thisway, the heat demand of case studies was simulated for different scenarios (Standard renovation andadvanced renovation) in the Växjö region. The results from the simulation of the houses with differentdirections showed that the heat demand energy decreased by, on average, 20% for standard and 28% foradvanced renovation. The comparison of the case studies with the same renovation scenario concludesthat they are no differences in the heat energy savings, which means the direction of the building has nobig impact on the energy saving of the renovation scenario in the Växjö region. The installation side ofthe PV has no impact on the annual electricity generation from PV for the house with a direction of 0degrees from the south. For the other houses, the yearly electricity generation from the PV increased by36.8% with one side on the roof (South direction). House number 4 is the best direction to install PVwith one side on the roof (south direction), and house 3 is the next best direction to install PV on oneside. When installed on both sides of the roof, the annual electricity generation from the PV decreased by5,3% with four houses in different directions. The changes are not so high may be due to the weather ofthe Växjö, which is 65 % cloudy according to the weather data file from TMY. Another reason is thatthe PV was installed on both sides of the pitched roof. When the houses have different directions, 0 to90 degrees from the south, that may be increased the electricity generation from the PV on one side andreduce it on the other.