Selecting Energy Efficient Building Envelope Retrofits to Exisiting Department of Defense Buildings Using Value Focused Thinking

The Department of Defense (DoD) has hundreds of thousands of facilities in its inventory, which consume billions of BTUSs of energy per year. Much of that energy is used to heat and cool the facility, and a great deal of this energy is lost through the building envelope. While new military construction works towards energy efficiency, the majority of DoD facilities were built over forty years ago with little regard to energy efficiency, and it is these facilities that have the greatest potential for energy efficient building envelope retrofits. There are hundreds of various new building envelope technologies available to retrofit an existing building envelope, including window, roof, and wall technologies. This research investigated fifteen different building envelope technologies and found that many of them are feasible alternatives for DoD facilities. Value Focused Thinking (VFT) was the methodology used to objectively compare these new technologies and capture what Air Force decision makers value in regards to retrofitting older facilities with these new building envelope technologies. Data from three different Air Force bases and values from three different Air Force Civil Engineer Operations Flight Chiefs were used to evaluate these fifteen technologies, and the results show that the energy efficient window technologies have the highest potential for energy savings at each location. However, the research also shows that each of these technologies is a viable option and should always be considered when retrofitting an existing facility.

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