• Energy Research

Worth aged buildings represent among the existing buildings a special case when it comes to their energy refurbishment. Unfortunately, the available technologies for building components characterized by high level of thermal performances show, not rarely, a limited compatibility with the architectural integrity of the building. In other words, the so-called Best Available Technologies, which are effectively adopted to optimize the building energy performances, in case of buildings to which a certain artistic, historic and/or architectural merit is recognized, i.e. heritage houses, might determine such kind of conflicts. This situation may lead to the selection of “non-invasive” but less performing building and plant elements. To check the effectiveness of these less performing technologies, we investigated the energy performance of two different refurbishment configurations of the building envelope of a heritage house: a “Best Available Technology” scenario, in which interventions assumed consist of using the Best Available Technology for energy saving; and an “Allowed Best Technology” scenario, in which interventions assumed consist of using technologies that, although not the best available ones, are anyway “allowable” according to the cultural heritage preservation requisites and rules. A cost-based comparison between these two configurations was also made. Results of this comparative analysis are reported here.

The energy saving in building goes on as an important challenge in the policy of Developed Countries. While the issue of energy building efficiency in heating season has deeply been investigated for a long time the issue of energy building efficiency in cooling season is relatively recent. Moreover considering the increase of electric consumption for air-conditioning in summer mainly due to the growing quality of life the research of technologies for reducing energy building consumption during this season becomes essential. The green roof represents a technology useful to reduce the energy consumption during the cooling season. In this work the authors report the results of a monitoring campaign of temperature through a green roof that is installed in a building situ in a town close to Palermo, South of Italy

In this paper a method is described, originally conceived during the compilation of the Energy and Environmental Regional Plan of Sicily, aimed to: a) set up a lay-out model of an overall regional residential estate into a certain number of different building and heating system types; b) calculate the energy needs of every single type according to the procedures established by the national and European regulations; The method is particularly designed to evaluate the possible energy savings from the implementation of different interventions concerning the envelope and the HVAC systems to the various building types. The method, although based on several assumptions, shows to be reliable enough and is also characterized by a simple structure easily adoptable by planners and technicians in their attempt to lead regional energy policies toward more sustainable paths. The method has been validated against the aggregate value of the real energy demand deriving from the regional energy balance.

Despite the increasing concern of institutions and technical organizations toward the improvement of the building energy (and, therefore, environmental) efficiency, the main goal of technicians should be also devoted toward the levels of internal thermal comfort that buildings are able to realize. As that, the relationships between energy performances and comfort conditions provided by the enclosures are of paramount importance in guiding designers in their work. In this paper, the influence of diverse roof construction typologies on energy and indoor performance of buildings has been investigated, in different Italian sites during heating and cooling seasons. In addition, it must be properly considered that buildings operate in given climate and weather contexts that deeply affect their performances. Hence, for taking into account the different weather conditions of each site, a new parameter has been used, that is the "Climatic Severity Index" corresponding to a value of magnitude of a climatic vector less a constant value, recently released by an Italian technical standard. The actions for improving the energy efficiency sometimes lead to a reduction of indoor comfort, therefore, not always easily applicable.

Marble is acquiring large popularity as building material. Since building materials are now required to be characterized by high energy and environmental performances, marble is entailed to fulfill top-level requirements. About its environmental performances an important European Decision establishes criteria for the award of the Community eco-label to this material. Unfortunately, this Decision is focused on mining and processing activities, seemingly neglecting marble transport. In contrast, this phase affects the whole working chain because it releases (pollutant) emissions and involves the use of primary and, in case, secondary energy sources. Here, the focus is on the role played by transport in the environmental impact exerted by the marble production process. In addition, the sources of energy, needed to move the material through its working chain, are pointed out. On purpose, a field-enquiry referred to a typical Sicilian marble producing site is presented here.

Human activities are severe sources of greenhouse gases and, particularly, of CO 2 . This trend, according with the highly demanding criteria released by the international institutions, must be suitably cut, in order of turning the pollutant emissions within limits that will guarantee a sustainable and environmentally safe development of the human species. Apart the measures that are since long time usually implemented in the technological systems, other interventions should be properly adopted in supporting the sustainability of the anthropic activities. These actions mainly apply to the so-called bioclimatic and passive measures and, particularly, could usefully refer to the plantation of proper surfaces of trees that, thanks to their metabolic mechanisms, are able to sequester relevant amounts of greenhouse gases. In this paper, after a description of a simple method for evaluating the quantities of CO 2 sequestered by trees, the availability of the main parameters on which the sequestration of CO 2 by urban trees is based will be discussed.

Actions contemplated in Sustainable Energy (and Climate) Action Plans (SEAPs), which municipalities adhering to the EU initiative called “The Covenant of Mayors” are required to prepare, regard many sectors, among which are buildings. To implement such plans, it is necessary to make use of methods for predicting energy use in buildings. Technicians involved in this tend to adopt easy-touse simulation models because of the common mid-level expertise of the offices involved. However, such simplified methods could result in a less accurate evaluation of the energy demand of buildings. In this paper the suitability of the quasi-steady state and the dynamic approach, in the frame of these new urban energy planning tools, is assessed. Specifically, a comparison between the two methods reported in the EN ISO 52016-1 Standard (namely the quasi-steady state monthly method and the dynamic hourly method), used here as representative of the two cited classes of models, is drawn. Despite some limitations of the quasi-steady state model found in the analysis, the possibility to still use both modelling approaches to implement SEAPs is argued in the paper. Moreover, a tentative procedural scheme is proposed, which technicians working on SEAPs can usefully follow in order to choose the most appropriate modelling approach that can be used depending on the specific situation to address.

Reducing energy consumption in the building tertiary sector, which accounts for a big share of the total energy use (and related CO 2 emissions) at European and Italian level, represent a strong element of safety for the EU-28. On the other hand, it is important to improve the, often overlooked, indoor comfort conditions of Italian schools since they have a significant impact on the well-being, productivity, health and safety of their occupants. Thus, it is appropriate to take into account the combination of both needs, also in light of the climate change scenario, in order to identify adequate improvement measures and justify such economic investment. This paper brings a contribution to the matter by means of a case study concerning a Sicilian school belonging to the 1930s period, representing an emblematic case of the Italian school construction panorama.