An integrated optimisation method for residential building design: A case study in Spain

• The SEDICAE project applies a new methodology to optimize building design.
• Methodology based on a Tabu Search and a simplified method.
• SEDICAE selects the construction elements that minimize the LCC and the demand of buildings.
• The methodology reduces the development time requirements in building design.

Designing a low-energy building requires the evaluation of a large number of parameter combinations. Currently, there are several software programs available that are able to calculate the energy performance and life-cycle cost. However, these programs provide little information regarding what actions will improve the energy performance and how much will they cost. An iterative software program that optimises the parameters would be a solution: however, the larger the database, the slower the data processing and optimisation. The SEDICAE project applies a new methodology based on a tabu search and a simplified method to calculate the demand. A tabu search is a good method to avoid local minima and to permit an evaluation of different solutions. The methodology is designed to estimate the annual energy demand, life-cycle cost and the energy rating. In this paper, 48 different scenarios were analysed with SEDICAE software.