Envelope retrofitting strategies for public school buildings in Jordan

The purpose of this research is to study and develop envelope retrofitting strategies for uninsulated school buildings in Jordan built before the educational reform; to date, more than 2917 of these buildings have continued to function. The proposed envelope retrofitting alternatives are analyzed in terms of potential energy savings and initial cost, based on which a holistic approach to envelope retrofitting is developed by combining energy-efficient and economically feasible retrofitting alternatives. The study adopts a multi-dimensional research design strategy, which includes mixed design methods-quantitative and qualitative. These methods include physical analysis, national archives, questionnaires, and field monitoring of environmental parameters inside classrooms. Energy simulation and economic analysis using the simple payback period analysis method are performed. The effects of the research strategies before and after their applications are used to assess the efficiency of envelope retrofitting. The findings indicate that the proposed approach to envelope retrofitting leads to energy savings of up to 54% with a payback period of 5.5 years. Finally, the application of the proposed retrofitting approach to public school buildings with various service lives is investigated.