Despite the increased awareness of benefits and opportunities resulting from energy retrofits, there is a lack of information regarding the factors influencing the success of energy retrofits – especially deep energy retrofits – aiming to achieve a net zero energy goal. The aim of this study is to identify factors and variables that could contribute to the successful implementation of energy retrofit measures in buildings with the goal of achieving net zero energy. A database of 34 small- and medium-sized commercial building retrofit projects was developed for this analysis, which was derived from the New Buildings Institute’s Net Zero Energy Building Database. Five factor categories were investigated: physical, technical, environmental, economic, and policy. A total of 11 variables from the 5 categories were analysed. The results show that success stems from a combination of certain variables: the number of floors, the climate zone, and the building cost. In general, the results indicate a trend: compact buildings with a construction cost range between $19/m² and $42/m² in a mild climate have a higher likelihood of achieving a net zero energy goal. Also, the analysis provides new evidence toward the importance of understanding a building’s physical characteristics in an existing building energy retrofit.

尽管人们对能源改造带来的收益和机遇有了更多的了解，但仍缺乏有关影响能源改造（尤其是深度能源改造）成功实现净零能耗目标的因素的信息。这项研究的目的是确定可能有助于在建筑物中成功实施能源改造措施的因素和变量，以实现净零能耗的目标。为了进行此分析，开发了一个包含34个中小型商业建筑改造项目的数据库，该数据库来自新建筑研究所的净零能耗建筑数据库。调查了五个因素类别：物理，技术，环境，经济和政策。共分析了来自5个类别的11个变量。结果表明，成功源于某些变量的组合：楼层数，气候区和建筑成本。通常，结果表明趋势：建筑成本在$ 19 / m之间的紧凑型建筑²和$ 42 / m ²在温和的气候下实现净零能耗目标的可能性更高。同样，该分析为理解现有建筑物能源改造中建筑物物理特征的重要性提供了新的证据。