• Energy Research

En los años 50 surge una revisión del Movimiento Moderno, que incorpora la seriación modular y la conexión con el contexto ambiental, aunque con unas premisas alejadas de los actuales paradigmas de sostenibilidad. En este contexto, dentro del ámbito nacional, destaca el pabellón de España de la Exposición Universal de Bruselas de 1958, de Corrales y Molezún. Este trabajo pretende desvelar cuantitativamente el comportamiento ambiental del pabellón en sus dos ubicaciones y configuraciones, Bruselas y Madrid, mediante la simulación y análisis de los modelos energéticos y lumínicos que reproducen las características del pabellón, con el fin de aportar un nuevo enfoque crítico, valorando la eficiencia del módulo para adaptarse a distintas condiciones ambientales. El análisis realizado revela la influencia del clima, la compacidad y la orientación, así como la problemática del confort térmico asociado a la iluminación natural cuando los porcentajes de acristalamiento son importantes y en entornos con alta radiación solar.

According to the IPCC Climate Change projections by 2050 temperatures in southern Spain will have increased noticeably during the summer. Housing—in its current form—will not be able to provide a suitable response to this new climate scenario, and will in turn prompt an increase in cooling energy consumption and a series of problems relating to health and comfort. The Design Builder simulation tool was used to quantify the impact of this future climate scenario on energy demand, as well as its effect under free-running conditions on indoor temperature. Different passive conditioning strategies were evaluated to establish their influence on the indoor comfort conditions. The case study examined a theoretical single-family residential unit model in order to establish guidelines for the pre-selection of the most suitable passive solutions. The results show that passive conditioning strategies analysed (envelope treatment, solar gain protection and night-time natural ventilation) reduce energy demand and indoor temperatures, thus increasing energy efficiency and improving indoor comfort conditions. Therefore, these passive conditioning strategies reduce the cooling energy consumption.

An extensive airtightness measurement has been carried out on 159 social housing units built in southern Spain. The sample includes homes from multifamily buildings built since the origin of social housing models in 1950, through to the most recent examples developed under EPBD compliance requirements. Testing was developed between 2012–2017 using the standardised Blower Door pressurisation technique. The main purpose of this research is to present a wide-ranging, exhaustive study on the airtightness performance of social housing built in southern Spain; these properties are representative of other locations in southern Europe due to both to their climate conditions and their socio-economic and cultural component. The general performance of the housing stock in terms of normalised permeability at 50 Pa shows a mean value of 7 h−1, similar to that found in other areas in Southern Europe, although with very significant variability between properties which are airtight and those which are highly permeable, all within a housing stock which is similar in terms of type and construction. Based on this information, it has been possible to develop a representative probabilistic description of the housing stock. The study provides useful information on the influence climatic location of buildings as well as age and other and other morphological and constructive parameters of residential buildings. This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under project BIA2012-39020-C02-01 and BES-2013-063097 support. Translation was granted by Ayudas de Internacionalización al Instituto Universitario de Arquitectura y Ciencias de la Construcción del VI Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Sevilla (Spain). Peer reviewed

The aim of recent European Directives and Regulations is the establishment of a common framework for increasing energy efficiency, encouraging the retrofitting of existing housing stock, obsolete in energy terms. Most of the studies carried out on the energy characterisation of existing housing stock for their subsequent retrofitting focus on climate areas in central and northern Europe, but there are fewer studies for southern Europe. This research was initiated in order to contribute to a better understanding of social housing in southern Europe, specifically southern Spain. A protocol was proposed for the assessment of the end-use energy behaviour of social housing stock, taking into consideration geographical location, building typologies, and morphological and constructive characteristics of the envelopes of this housing stock. This protocol is divided into two different phases: a first phase for a general energy assessment and a second phase for a detailed energy assessment. It aims to provide a general energy behaviour assessment as the first step in the proposal of guidelines and strategies for the energy retrofitting of existing social housing stock. In order to achieve these objectives, the first phase of the proposed protocol includes a typological classification of buildings and a morphological and constructive characterisation of thermal envelopes by construction period. The second phase of the protocol includes onsite data collection on hygrothermal behaviour and energy consumption and generation and validation of energy models in the buildings selected for their subsequent energy simulation and rating. In this study, the first phase of the protocol was applied to five case studies built between 1950 and 1980 in the different climate zones in the south of Spain, with the main conclusion that the existing general high level of demand due to the poor thermal performance of the envelope leads to a very low energy rating.

The Climate Change scenario projected by the IPCC for the year 2050 predicts noticeable increases in temperature. In severe summer climates, such as the Mediterranean area, this would have very negative effects on thermal comfort in the existing housing stock, given the current high percentage of dwellings which are obsolete in energy terms and house a population at serious risk of energy poverty. The main aim of this paper is to generate a predictive model in order to assess the impact of this future climate scenario on thermal comfort conditions in an entire building category. To do so, calibrated models representing linear-type social multi-family buildings, dating from the post-war period and located in southern Spain, will be simulated extensively using transient energy analyses performed by EnergyPlus. In addition, a sensitivity analysis will be performed to identify the most influential parameters on thermal discomfort. The main results predict a generalized deterioration in indoor thermal comfort conditions due to global warming, increasing the average percentage of discomfort hours during the summer by more than 35%. This characterization of the future thermal behaviour of the residential stock in southern Spain could be a trustworthy tool for decision-making in energy retrofitting projects which are so badly needed. To do so, further work is required on some limitations of this model so that different user profiles and typologies can be represented in detail and an economic assessment can be included.

In Spain, a significant percentage of the residential building stock presents deficient indoor conditions regarding current energy standards, due to having been constructed before the Norma Básica de la Edificación in 1979 (NBE CT 79) regarding thermal conditions in buildings. Current environmental policies pursue a cut in energy consumption and seek improvements in indoor conditions by refurbishing current stock, mainly that constructed between 1950 and 1980. Before any retrofitting action, housing monitoring has become essential for a better understanding of real and passive environmental behavior. This paper aims to present the monitoring in hourly intervals, real-time and post-occupancy conditions of a residential building in Seville, built in the 1950s and belonging to national heritage. The results obtained show major discrepancies between thermal indoor data collected and comfort conditions, both in summer and winter, which are solved by the sporadic use of cooling and heating devices present in the dwellings, thus leading to less energy consumption than expected. This is a common occurrence in multi-family housing units from the Mediterranean arc: there are many periods of the year in which a vast number of the population lives in poor energy conditions.