Energy in Buildings: Developing a DSS Model for Facilitating the Process of Decision Making of Cooling and Heating Systems Selection for Non-Industrial Buildings

Energy and its consumption is one of the most concerning issues during recent decades. Construction with having 40% share of all of the energy consumption and with producing 35% of greenhouse gases, is one of the most noted industries in this matter. Researches with LCA approach, have shown that 10-20% of these consumed energies are embodied energies, hence 80-90% of energy usage in construction is for operation period of the buildings. Heating and cooling includes 60-70% of this operational energy usage of the construction.Though, failing to manage of this part of energy usage would cause a great failure not only in sustainable development and optimization of energy consumption, but also in environmental pollution, operational costs and facilities depreciation. Selecting a suitable heating and cooling system in the smart way is a key factor to reach the proper balance between needs satisfaction and energy consumption.This research is going to found a proper foundation for decision making through developing a DSS for facilitating the process of decision making about selecting the most suitable heating and cooling systems for non-industrial buildings. In this proposed model, the emphasis is on general conditions (e.g. heating and cooling systems technical specifications, notifications of the experts, etc.) as well as special situations of the building and project (e.g. climate, project size and quality level, values of the client, notices of design team, etc.) therefor it would fit the best for both general and special conditions and suits all the stackholders with best heating and cooling system solutions.