• Energy Research

Highlights•A multi-scale simulation methodology to assess the effects of vegetation on thermal comfort is used.•It application is shown on a case of urban and building retrofit intervention.•The effect of plants on the microclimate and indoor environment is assessed.•A decrease of up to 4.8 °C in indoor temperature is registered.•The final impact on the indoor thermal comfort based on the adaptive model is determined.

Highlights•A multi-scale simulation methodology to assess the effects of vegetation on thermal comfort is used.•It application is shown on a case of urban and building retrofit intervention.•The effect of plants on the microclimate and indoor environment is assessed.•A decrease of up to 4.8 °C in indoor temperature is registered.•The final impact on the indoor thermal comfort based on the adaptive model is determined.

In this article is presented the preliminary evaluation of the performance of radiation transmission of glass block, used in support of photovoltaic cells, investigating different internal surface points of the block, which are subject to different shading during daylight hours. The aim is to establish how the edging setting, the only opaque element, can reduce the amount of light radiation during the day, introducing in this way a reduction of efficiency of the entire generation system. The generation system can be based on traditional photovoltaic cells or on the most suitable dye sensitized solar cells. An experimental measurement setup employing a microprocessor-based instrument has been created and a set of measures have been carried out. The measures prove that the shading effect at different irradiation angles do not affect significantly the lighting over the PV cell.

In this article is presented the preliminary evaluation of the performance of radiation transmission of glass block, used in support of photovoltaic cells, investigating different internal surface points of the block, which are subject to different shading during daylight hours. The aim is to establish how the edging setting, the only opaque element, can reduce the amount of light radiation during the day, introducing in this way a reduction of efficiency of the entire generation system. The generation system can be based on traditional photovoltaic cells or on the most suitable dye sensitized solar cells. An experimental measurement setup employing a microprocessor-based instrument has been created and a set of measures have been carried out. The measures prove that the shading effect at different irradiation angles do not affect significantly the lighting over the PV cell.