Västra Karup, Sweden · Lund University, 2025

Renovation of a public building

Integrating solar energy, costs and environmental aspects

This project develops a parametric renovation study for a historic church administration building in Västra Karup. Measures combining façade insulation, window replacement, ventilation strategy and photovoltaics were simulated as 686 packages and assessed over a 40-year horizon by energy use, life-cycle cost and greenhouse-gas emissions.

Axonometric cutaway of the Västra Karup building with ventilation, photovoltaics and renovation measures

686

renovation packages from four measure families

148 → 92

kg CO₂e/m² over 40 years, baseline to best package

packages stay Pareto-optimal across all electricity price scenarios

Aim of the project

A parametric renovation framework to find balanced solutions for life-cycle cost, environmental impact and solar energy for a historic building.

Brief

The building combines a 19th-century hall with stone walls and a wing from around 1950 built in uninsulated LECA block masonry. The roof was the only insulated envelope element. Heating comes from a ground-source heat pump; district heating is unavailable locally, so the entire demand is electric.

Public owners decide under tight budgets and short fiscal cycles. The task was therefore not a single best solution but a basis for decisions: which combination of measures, at which investment level, produces which effect on cost, emissions and energy class.

My contribution

Group project with Ana Sofia Compean Becerra and Ishaan V. Mahajan. My work packages:

Photovoltaic system design
Cost analysis
Life-cycle assessment calculation
Energy simulation

Approach

Renovation measures and parametric framework

Insulation

×5

Windows

×6

Ventilation

×2

PV system

×6

Four families of measures were combined:

Internal insulation in hemp fibre or stone wool at several thicknesses
Window replacement
Ventilation as a CAV or DCV system with heat recovery
Photovoltaics in six sizes from 15 to 90 m² at 45° facing south

Uncertainty and trade‑offs

Cost, environment and balanced solutions

All packages were assessed by combined environmental impact and cost performance. 16 packages remain on the Pareto front — the trade-off between life-cycle cost and life-cycle assessment — and fall into three groups: cost-driven, balanced and environment-driven solutions.