A Multi-Criteria Approach to the Selection of Renewable Energy Heat Sources for Public Buildings, Considering Technical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects: A Case Study

Selecting heating systems for public buildings is a complex decision-making problem that requires simultaneous consideration of technical, economic, and environmental criteria, which are often conflicting. In practice, decisions still rely largely on single-criterion indicators, limiting the potential for a comprehensive and balanced evaluation of available alternatives. This paper presents a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework for evaluating renewable heating systems. The model integrates technical performance, life cycle cost indicators, and annual operational CO2 emissions into a structured, transparent decision-making process. The approach is validated through a real-world case study that analyzes monoenergetic and bivalent heat pump configurations, both with and without photovoltaic (PV) integration. The results demonstrate that preferred solutions based on individual performance indicators do not necessarily lead to optimal outcomes. According to the MCDA results, the ground-source heat pump system integrated with a PV installation (W6) achieved the highest overall score among all analyzed variants. The results also showed that hybrid heat pump systems supported by on-site PV generation can provide favorable economic, environmental and operational performance. The developed MCDA framework is a practical, transparent decision-support tool for selecting renewable heating systems in public buildings, validated through a real-life case study.