A significant portion of energy sources in many countries is devoted to the residential sector requirements. A considerable part of this energy is used for heating residential buildings. Minimizing the total heating cost of these buildings has a significant impact on reducing the economic burden and energy consumption. The deterministic parameters in the computation of total heating cost are the fuel type, insulation material and insulation thickness. Since these parameters are not linearly independent from each other, in the current study for a more comprehensive approach, a simultaneous multi-variable optimization model including both discrete and continuous design variables is developed. To solve the acquired model, the recently developed non-deterministic swarm-based approach so-called Interactive Search Algorithm is applied as the optimization method. The degree-day values dependent on the climatic conditions of seven different cities of Turkey are considered as case studies. Subsequently, achieved numeric outcomes are reported as the optimal total heating cost, fuel type (i.e., the sequential integer that indicates the type of fuel) and insulation layer’s material and thickness for each selected climate condition. Moreover, the resultant payback period and saving cost for the acquired optimal condition is calculated and announced. In all studied cities, a combination of natural gas for fuel type and glass wool for insulation material is obtained as the optimal state. The acquired optimal total heating cost values are consistent with the conventional approach results by an average deviation of 6.67e−3%, which reveals the proposed methodology works well in solving the problem.

在许多国家中，很大一部分能源专门用于住宅部门。这种能量的很大一部分用于加热住宅建筑。将这些建筑物的总供暖成本降至最低，对减轻经济负担和能源消耗具有重大影响。在计算总加热成本时，确定性参数是燃料类型，绝缘材料和绝缘厚度。由于这些参数不是彼此线性独立的，因此在当前研究中，为了寻求更全面的方法，开发了同时包含离散和连续设计变量的多变量同时优化模型。为了解决获得的模型，优化方法是采用最近开发的基于非确定性群体的方法，即所谓的交互式搜索算法。取决于土耳其七个不同城市的气候条件的度日值被视为案例研究。随后，将获得的数值结果报告为最佳总加热成本，燃料类型（即，指示燃料类型的连续整数）以及每种选定气候条件的隔热层的材料和厚度。此外，计算并宣布所获得的最佳条件的最终投资回收期和节省成本。在所有研究的城市中，将天然气用作燃料类型和将玻璃棉用作隔热材料的组合是最佳状态。