A Multi-criteria Assessment of HVAC Configurations for Contemporary Heating and Cooling Needs

Due to the significant impact that HVAC systems have on the overall building consumption, there is the need to encourage consumers to invest in increasingly more efficient and sustainable technologies to accelerate the transition of the building sector. Moreover, new occupants’ habits, higher environmental awareness, and the increment of external air temperatures due to climate change are varying buildings energy demands, which are highly experiencing also simultaneous heating and cooling needs. Consumers’ investment decisions in the building sector are usually driven by financial convenience. However, the energy investment decision-making process is a multi-dimensional problem, characterized by different and often conflicting aspects, belonging to energy, technological, financial, environmental, and social domains. In the light of the above, the work aims to compare different electric HVAC configurations, capable of meeting the same contemporary heating and cooling loads, from a multi-perspective standpoint, ranking their performances according to a set of criteria that can potentially influence the choice of the most appropriate HVAC solution in line with consumers’ needs. To this purpose, a multi-criteria analysis is developed, in the form of the PROMETHEE II method, with the final scope of ranking the selected alternatives according to different and conflicting criteria.