Building Energy Efficiency Assessment and Retrofit Technologies

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 891

Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: sustainable built environment; building energy retrofitting; green building; construction and demolition waste management; infrastructure resilience

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Guest Editor
Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: smart retrofitting; building retro-commissioning; facility management; building services engineering; maintenance management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: built environment; health and safety; urban resilience; smart building retrofits
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Buildings account for a substantial share of energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions, placing them at the center of today’s energy and environmental challenges. As existing building stocks continue to age, the need for effective assessment methods and innovative retrofit technologies has become more critical than ever. Enhancing building energy efficiency is key not only to reducing environmental impacts but also to improving occupant comfort, resilience, and long-term economic performance.

This Special Issue, titled “Building Energy Efficiency Assessment and Retrofit Technologies”, will bring together the latest advances in assessment methodologies, performance evaluation, retrofit solutions, and implementation strategies that enable the transformation of existing buildings into more sustainable, energy-efficient, and low-carbon assets. We invite researchers and practitioners to contribute original research articles, case studies, and reviews that advance knowledge and practice in this critical field.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Methods and tools for building energy performance assessment and benchmarking;
  • Building energy audits, diagnostics, and monitoring techniques;
  • Simulation, modeling, and digital twin approaches for energy efficiency analysis.
  • Retrofit technologies for building envelopes, HVAC systems, lighting, and controls;
  • Integration of renewable energy systems in retrofit projects;
  • Smart technologies, IoT, and AI-driven solutions for energy management in existing buildings;
  • Cost-effectiveness, financing mechanisms, and life-cycle assessment of retrofits;
  • Policies, standards, and frameworks supporting large-scale energy retrofitting;
  • Occupant comfort, health, and behavioral considerations in retrofit design;
  • Barriers, opportunities, and best practices in implementing retrofit strategies at scale.

Through this Special Issue, we will provide a platform for exchanging ideas, sharing success stories, and highlighting innovative pathways toward ensuring that existing building stock is sustainable. Both original research and comprehensive review articles are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.

Dr. Linyan Chen
Prof. Dr. Joseph H. K. Lai
Dr. Fan Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • building energy performance assessment
  • energy efficiency retrofit
  • building retro-commissioning strategies
  • building energy simulation
  • building energy modeling
  • smart building technologies
  • life-cycle assessment
  • occupant comfort and behavior
  • policies and strategies

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

34 pages, 6604 KB  
Article
Dynamic Optimization Model for Passive Solar Shading and Its Application in Building Energy Efficiency Across Multiple
by Sihan Chen, Zheyuan Chen and Yao Chen
Buildings 2026, 16(10), 1887; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16101887 - 10 May 2026
Viewed by 308
Abstract
Passive solar shading is an effective strategy for reducing building energy demand, but its performance varies with climate, façade orientation, and thermal inertia. This study develops a sequentially coupled framework that links geometric shading calculation, anisotropic window heat gain prediction, and indoor thermal [...] Read more.
Passive solar shading is an effective strategy for reducing building energy demand, but its performance varies with climate, façade orientation, and thermal inertia. This study develops a sequentially coupled framework that links geometric shading calculation, anisotropic window heat gain prediction, and indoor thermal balance analysis across low- and high-latitude scenarios. For the low-latitude case, the model identifies a stable engineering overhang depth of about 1.85 m under the reference design space and weather inputs, while preserving winter solar admission. When compared with an unshaded baseline case with the same envelope, glazing, weather file, and internal gain assumptions, the optimized dynamic shading configuration reduces annual cooling load by more than 42% in the Guangzhou case study. For the high-latitude case, coupling shading with thermal mass parameters improves annual energy performance, and the best tested configuration achieves an energy-saving efficiency of 37.83% with an annual heating load of 96.14 MWh in the Stockholm scenario. The uncertainty and sensitivity analysis reports deterministic quantitative ranges and representative cases: the low-latitude recommended depth remains within the 1.85–1.864 m engineering neighborhood, while the Stockholm sensitivity sweeps show heating-load reductions of approximately 32.2–34.1% and indoor temperature variation reductions of up to 60.5–78.3% across the tested thermal mass parameter ranges. The discussion also clarifies the influence pathways of literature-sourced PCM and thermal property parameters, especially latent heat, thermal conductivity, and effective heat capacity. The quantitative validation boundary analysis distinguishes internal verification, controlled baseline benchmarking, and the external EnergyPlus/IDA ICE or measurement comparison still required for calibrated prediction. The results support the framework as a model-development tool for comparing passive design strategies under clearly defined assumptions, validation boundaries, practical engineering limits, and deterministic sensitivity ranges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Energy Efficiency Assessment and Retrofit Technologies)
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