Energy Efficiency and Financial Performance of a Reference Hotel Proposing a Global Cost Benefit Analysis
Academic literature suggests a positive relationship between environmental and financial performance in property investments: in addition to the energy savings related to the building renovation, co benefits can be reaped, ranging from being healthier to providing lower ownership risk. In this context, the paper describes the EU prescribed cost optimality calculation performed for a hotel building and proposes an experimental revised version on the cost optimal methodology, in which the co benefits of energy retrofit are assessed and included in the calculation. An Italian existing Reference Hotel (RH) was selected as baseline model for the cost optimal analysis. A number of Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) and packages of EEMs for the building envelope were applied to the RH, for which energy performances were assessed through a dynamic energy simulation software. Firstly, primary energy consumptions and global costs of the packages of EEMs were derived to identify the cost optimal configuration from a financial point of view. The second step of the work dealt with the definition of a revised version of the formula for global cost. The proposed "global cost benefit" formula was then applied to all the retrofit options. Results showed that including co benefits can significantly reduce the global cost of retrofit projects and can transform the cost optimal methodology in a useful tool for modifying investors' perception of the financial convenience of retrofit interventions