• Energy Research

The real assets, procedures, systems,and subsystems of a city can be virtually represented throughan urban digital twin(DT),which integrates heterogeneous data to learn and evolve with the physical city,offering support to monitor the current status and predict possible future scenarios.A DT of a city can be organized into layers, which represent specific facets of the city and cooperate to address specifici ssues.In this work,we present an application scenario in which a geometric layer,representing the 3D morphology of the urbane nvironment, cooperates with an energy consumption layer,providing knowledge of the peculiarities of thebuilding urban area and in particular of the built fabric,to assess their impact in terms of energy efficiency.The analysis of the urban geometries provides quantitative measuresas useful input,for instance,to define heat leakage.

The real assets, procedures, systems,and subsystems of a city can be virtually represented throughan urban digital twin(DT),which integrates heterogeneous data to learn and evolve with the physical city,offering support to monitor the current status and predict possible future scenarios.A DT of a city can be organized into layers, which represent specific facets of the city and cooperate to address specifici ssues.In this work,we present an application scenario in which a geometric layer,representing the 3D morphology of the urbane nvironment, cooperates with an energy consumption layer,providing knowledge of the peculiarities of thebuilding urban area and in particular of the built fabric,to assess their impact in terms of energy efficiency.The analysis of the urban geometries provides quantitative measuresas useful input,for instance,to define heat leakage.

The article presents the outcomes of a monitoring campaign and a survey performed in a~school building in Tirana. Included in the Bilateral Agreement between the National Research Council of Italy and the Ministry of Education and Sport of the Republic of Albania, the research is based on environmental analysis, collection of data from monitoring of environmental variables and students' feedback. The monitoring of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) was carried out with a~nearable Environmental Monitoring System (nEMoS) for IEQ purposes, designed and developed by ITC-CNR based on the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) philosophy. The proliferation of the maker movement philosophy has promoted the diffusion of DIY-based technologies. The spread of this movement is observed outside schools but there is a growing interest among educators to introduce this philosophy in the students' education, approaching to STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics) in a different and more stimulating way. The application of two nEMoS devices in two classrooms (in different locations) aroused the curiosity of students, bringing them closer to the world of technology with a practical example. It also increased their awareness about the overall IEQ conditions in the classrooms where they spend a considerable part of their lives.

The article presents the outcomes of a monitoring campaign and a survey performed in a~school building in Tirana. Included in the Bilateral Agreement between the National Research Council of Italy and the Ministry of Education and Sport of the Republic of Albania, the research is based on environmental analysis, collection of data from monitoring of environmental variables and students' feedback. The monitoring of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) was carried out with a~nearable Environmental Monitoring System (nEMoS) for IEQ purposes, designed and developed by ITC-CNR based on the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) philosophy. The proliferation of the maker movement philosophy has promoted the diffusion of DIY-based technologies. The spread of this movement is observed outside schools but there is a growing interest among educators to introduce this philosophy in the students' education, approaching to STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics) in a different and more stimulating way. The application of two nEMoS devices in two classrooms (in different locations) aroused the curiosity of students, bringing them closer to the world of technology with a practical example. It also increased their awareness about the overall IEQ conditions in the classrooms where they spend a considerable part of their lives.

Thermal comfort is traditionally assessed by using the PMV index defined according to the EN ISO 7730:2005 where the user passively interacts with the surrounding environment considering a physic-based model built on a steady-state thermal energy balance equation. The thermal comfort satisfaction is a holistic concept comprising behavioral, physiological and psychological aspects. This article describes a workflow for the assessment of the thermal conditions of users through the analysis of their specific psychophysical conditions overcoming the limitation of the physic-based model in order to investigate and consider other possible relations between the subjective and objective variables.

Thermal comfort is traditionally assessed by using the PMV index defined according to the EN ISO 7730:2005 where the user passively interacts with the surrounding environment considering a physic-based model built on a steady-state thermal energy balance equation. The thermal comfort satisfaction is a holistic concept comprising behavioral, physiological and psychological aspects. This article describes a workflow for the assessment of the thermal conditions of users through the analysis of their specific psychophysical conditions overcoming the limitation of the physic-based model in order to investigate and consider other possible relations between the subjective and objective variables.

The article describes the design phase, development and practical application of a low-cost control system for a forced circulation solar plant in an outdoor test cell located near Milan. Such a system provides for the use of an electric pump for the circulation of heat transfer fluid connecting the solar thermal panel to the storage tank. The running plant temperatures are the fundamental parameter to evaluate the system performance such as proper operation, and the control and management system has to consider these parameters. A solar energy-powered wireless-based smart object was developed, able to monitor the running temperatures of a solar thermal system and aimed at moving beyond standard monitoring approaches to achieve a low-cost and customizable device, even in terms of installation in different environmental conditions. To this end, two types of communications were used: the first is a low-cost communication based on the ZigBee protocol used for control purposes, so that it can be customized according to specific needs, while the second is based on a Bluetooth protocol used for data display.