Impact of building envelope and mechanical component degradation on the whole building performance: a review paper

During the building operation phase, it is recognized that the performance of building envelope elements and energy supply systems drops with time. This performance degradation usually leads to lower energy efficiency and higher life cycle costs than predicted in the early design phase. This paper quantitatively reviews the impacts of this deterioration on the whole building performance. From the findings of the reviewed literature, it can be concluded that the whole building performance is very sensitive to several deterioration factors, particularly the performance degradation of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The impact on the whole building performance mostly ranges from 20% to 30% over 20 years, according to the reviewed studies.