Survey Analysis to Better Quantify Building Thermal Performance Using Reliability, Resilience, Robustness, and Vulnerability

Quality metrics such as reliability, resilience, robustness, and vulnerability (3RV) all assess building performance from different perspectives. These concepts have overlaps that make it challenging to distinguish and quantify them properly. Using a survey, this paper investigates how researchers and industry experts applied 3RV concepts to building thermal performance. After reviewing developed definitions in literature, survey outcomes are presented to: (i) clarify respondents ideas about the basic features of 3RV concepts and evaluate the significance of each 3RV concept compared to other features of High-Performance Buildings (HPBs), (ii) estimate respondent interpretations about the HPBs thermal performance using 3RV, and (iii) quantify the relative importance of 3RV concepts based on event types and building archetypes. Survey outcomes indicated that there is an inherent bias toward resilience and relatively less awareness of how these concepts overlap significantly that could be solved using a central framework.