Energy and cost optimal design for the reconstruction of residential building envelopes by bacterial memetic algorithms

In this paper we apply bacterial memetic algorithms for the energy and cost optimal renovation of residential buildings. Following economical demands, there are two types of optimizations considered. First, the total cost of the renovation is prescribed and the best energy quality of the building envelope is determined with a total construction cost not exceeding the given limit. Second, the targeted energy quality of the renovated building is prescribed, and the algorithm determines the optimal renovation plan requiring the smallest costs. Only the optimization of the building envelope is performed, the optimization of the heating-ventilation-air-condition system is ignored. The chromosome of the bacteria contains genes taking only integer values and genes taking real values as well. The value of the genes taking only integer numbers are improved by a simple local search algorithm. The value of the genes taking real numbers are improved locally by the Levenberg-Marquardt approach. Results of actual building optimizations reveal the potential of the proposed algorithm.