A Critical Review of Facade Retrofit Measures for Minimizing Heating and Cooling Demand in Existing Buildings

The building industry is currently experiencing a myriad of challenges, including low energy performance in existing buildings. Since the facade considerably contributes to heating and cooling in buildings, facade retrofit is presumed as an effective solution to minimize cooling and heating demand in existing buildings. In-depth scrutiny in facade retrofit actions reveals different Facade Retrofit Measures (FRMs) that aim to minimize cooling and heating demand in existing buildings. They include Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs), which prevent excessive heat transmittance, and Energy Modulation Measures (EMMs), which modulate energy consumption through passive heating and cooling strategies. A Combination of Measures (CoMs) is also the state-of-the-art in the face of retrofit actions. In this paper, a further analysis elaborates on the effectiveness of each measure in Cooling-Dominated (CD) and Heating-Dominated (HD) climates. This analysis showed that facade retrofit could reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling by up to 50% through architectural interventions. The study findings also revealed that ECMs effectively minimize energy consumption in a heating-dominated climate by lowering conductive and convective heat transfer. However, EMMs are more crucial in reducing energy consumption in a cooling-dominated climate by controlling radiative heat transfer.