Economy and sustainability analysis with a novel modular configurable multi-modal white-box building model

Abstract

This paper presents a novel modeling approach for building performance simulation, characterized as a white-box model with a high degree of modularity and flexibility, enabling direct integration into complex large-scale energy system co-simulations. The introduced model is described in detail, with a focus on its modular structure, and proposes various configurations that include various building insulation, heating methods, occupancy patterns, and weather data to analyze different scenarios, and the energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and heating costs are compared and analyzed across 36 introduced scenarios. The thermodynamic behavior of the model is shown to be consistent with real-world conditions, and the comparison of the scenarios concludes that the use of heat pumps for indoor heating in well-insulated buildings has significant economic and sustainability benefits, whereas the use of natural gas-fueled boilers is more cost-effective for buildings with low energy ratings.