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• An innovative geospatial tool supporting energy policies at city level. • Local-scale aerial thermography integrating data on energy performance certificates. • Energy performance classification of all buildings and estimation of energy demand. • Calculation of photovoltaic potential from a highly detailed Digital Surface Model. • Potential 70 % reduction of primary energy and emissions for a district in Turin. Based on the central role of cities in the decarbonisation process, this study aims at providing a novel methodology to assess and optimize the building energy demand and photovoltaic producibility at city scale. This is done by exploring the potential of aerial acquisition of local-scale thermographic data to integrate the existing database on building Energy Performance Certificates, on which the EU energy assessment and retrofit policies are based, on a dedicated GIS platform. Once the method is validated through testing the reliability of the resulting energy classification of buildings, the approach is used to esteem the energy demand and potential energy production in the current state and two alternative retrofit scenarios for a large district in Turin, Italy. For the analysed scenarios, potential savings are quantified up to 20 GWh and 5000 tCO 2 yearly, decreasing by more than 70 % primary energy and CO 2 emissions when photovoltaic panels and heat pumps are optimally used and integrated to the existing district heating system. Conclusions remark the potential of this tool to support urban policy making and governance, also with the future perspective of a thematic urban digital twin for planning energy retrofit intervention and large scale implementation of Renewable Energy Communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • An extended CBA to compare energy retrofit strategies for NZED is proposed. • The study considers energy performance, life cycle costs and extra-economic impacts. • The SROI outcomes the best performing strategy. • The proposed approach is validated through its application to a real case study. • Sensitivity analyses to test the decision-making process reliability are performed. Abstract The European Union issued several directives in the field of energy efficiency which impact on the building sector in order to avoid a further increase of energy consumption and to mitigate climate change. In particular, the recast of the European Energy Performance of Buildings supports the improvement of buildings energy performance and introduces a new target, the Nearly Zero-Energy Building (NZEB) concept. Nowadays, the European Commission is shifting attention towards the district level and post-carbon cities and Net Zero-Energy District (NZED) targets are emerging. In order to evaluate alternative strategies for the construction of NZED, according to a socio-economic point of view, different aspects and impacts have to be considered. This paper studies the NZED concept and proposes an evaluation method developed from the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) in order to include extra-economic benefits generated by the project. The proposed approach is applied on a real case concerning the energy requalification of a NZED in Turin (Italy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding the most appropriate matching between envelope features and HVAC system configurations in function of different climates results fundamental for minimizing buildings' energy consumptions. The research aims at presenting the most energyperforming HVAC system configurations for high-performing buildings. Different configurations were modeled for new nonresidential Reference Buildings in seven European cities, using dynamic simulation software EnergyPlus and some evaluation tools specifically set to emulate the energy performance of some specific HVAC technologies. Finally, the results obtained were compared in order to outline some conclusions, useful as guidelines for optimizing the choice of HVAC systems in function of climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding the most appropriate matching between envelope features and HVAC system configurations in function of different climates results fundamental for minimizing buildings’ energy consumptions. The research aims at presenting the most energy-performing HVAC system configurations for high-performing buildings. Different configurations were modeled for new non-residential Reference Buildings in seven European cities, using dynamic simulation software EnergyPlus and some evaluation tools specifically set to emulate the energy performance of some specific HVAC technologies. Finally, the results obtained were compared in order to outline some conclusions, useful as guidelines for optimizing the choice of HVAC systems in function of climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Thermal resilient building is able to absorb and adapt during the disruptive event and recover after it. • Passive and active energy efficiency measures can improve building thermal resilience. • Metrics of passive resilience estimate envelope capability in maintaining the desired indoor temperature. • Metrics of active resilience assess systems capacity in maintaining the desired minimum services. The energy performance of buildings is strongly influenced by several foreseeable and unforeseeable events during the operation phase, including natural hazards or energy supply disruptions. The increase of these events has raised attention on resilience, identified as the capability of buildings to react to such events guaranteeing the continuation of their operations. This paper investigates the resilience of residential reference buildings sited in different European climates (Athens, Berlin, Madrid, Turin, Stockholm). It simulates an eventual disruption of gas supply during winter carrying out energy dynamic simulations. Proposing new metrics to assess the building resilience, this paper quantifies the passive and active resilience of the main building components, both envelope and HVAC systems. It also analyses the effect of retrofit interventions on building resilience depending on climate. Results enlighten possible emergency interventions with backup electricity solutions to be activated to guarantee minimum services during the disruptive event associated with climate or geopolitical issues. The importance of increasing self-sufficiency in buildings through renewable energy sources is emphasized to favour the continuation of services in case of energy supply interruption. Finally, the link with energy security and independence is outlined together with possible strategies to increase the building stock resilience in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing phenomena related to urbanization and human impact on landscape leads to re-think the future of the cities. As well as in buildings, a careful design, the use of renewable sources and the use of advanced technical solutions, to achieve a significant energy savings, are strategies not sufficient to define a "Post-Carbon city" or a "Post-Carbon building". It is necessary that the citizen/occupant become a "Post-Carbon society", i.e. they pursue conscious lifestyle marked on energy saving principles. This suggest that the occupant’s behaviour plays a fundamental role. In fact, many studies have shown that the human behaviour influences, mainly, the energy performance, explaining, in this way, the discrepancy gap between predicted and real consumptions. Since human behaviour is, in large part, influenced by several factors, a behavioural change towards sustainable lifestyle is desirable and this is possible, for examples, by providing to users feedback and information on comfort condition and energy use. The main goal of this research is to identify the pro-environmental behaviour by a questionnaire survey. Specifically, the structure of the survey will be described in this paper and the main results presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Historical evidence indicates that when man first considered settlements and the order pertaining the rein, he showed concern for the conservation of this order and of monuments" [1].Today, the conservation of historical buildings involves also the necessity to adapt them to the current lifestyles and legislation in order to maintain them, wherever possible, as living evidences of the past. One of the most important challenges of adapting historical buildings to future usages is represented by the enhancement of energy performances of these building, that is crucial both for environmental and economic reasons. The aim of this paper is to outline a methodology to investigate the potential energy savings and the enhancement of historical buildings' livability by acting only on their operation, so that the building fabric could be maintained as much as possible as the original evidence. Furthermore, an example about methodology's application on a real case study will be described in order to translate the theoretic phases into an operative plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Historical evidence indicates that when man first considered settlements and the order pertaining the rein, he showed concern for the conservation of this order and of monuments" [1]. Today, the conservation of historical buildings involves also the necessity to adapt them to the current lifestyles and legislation in order to maintain them, wherever possible, as living evidences of the past. One of the most important challenges of adapting historical buildings to future usages is represented by the enhancement of energy performances of these building, that is crucial both for environmental and economic reasons. The aim of this paper is to outline a methodology to investigate the potential energy savings and the enhancement of historical buildings’ livability by acting only on their operation, so that the building fabric could be maintained as much as possible as the original evidence. Furthermore, an example about methodology’s application on a real case study will be described in order to translate the theoretic phases into an operative plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing phenomena related to urbanization and human impact on landscape leads to re-think the future of the cities. As well as in buildings, a careful design, the use of renewable sources and the use of advanced technical solutions, to achieve a significant energy savings, are strategies not sufficient to define a “Post-Carbon city” or a “Post-Carbon building”. It is necessary that the citizen/occupant become a “Post-Carbon society”, i.e. they pursue conscious lifestyle marked on energy saving principles. This suggest that the occupant’s behaviour plays a fundamental role. In fact, many studies have shown that the human behaviour influences, mainly, the energy performance, explaining, in this way, the discrepancy gap between predicted and real consumptions. Since human behaviour is, in large part, influenced by several factors, a behavioural change towards sustainable lifestyle is desirable and this is possible, for examples, by providing to users feedback and information on comfort condition and energy use. The main goal of this research is to identify the pro-environmental behaviour by a questionnaire survey. Specifically, the structure of the survey will be described in this paper and the main results presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the European targets for achieving high-performing buildings, the refurbishment of the existing building stock and, in particular, of historical buildings represents a great challenge. The research aims at identifying the most energy-effective HVAC configuration for retrofitting historical hotels in Mediterranean area, where the objective is to minimize the consumptions for both space heating and cooling. A Reference Building for an historical hotel was simulated in five Mediterranean cities and different HVAC solutions were assessed, using EnergyPlus software coupled with tools specifically set to emulate the energy behaviour of certain HVAC technologies, aiming to highlight the most efficient alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In terms of existing buildings’ retrofit, historical and non-residential buildings clearly represent two challenging categories. In historical buildings, due to architectural constraints, acting on the technical side is often the only way to reduce consumptions, while non-residential buildings usually require simultaneous production of hot and chilled water. In these cases, Polyvalent heat pumps represent an interesting solution, able to guarantee significant reductions of primary energy consumptions. In detail, a Reference Building for an historical office was simulated in three Mediterranean cities, using EnergyPlus software and some evaluation tools specifically set to emulate the energy performances of the examined HVAC technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing attention for energy efficiency in buildings stimulates the expansion of “Smart buildings”. In offices and homes, building automation systems are suited to individuals, foresighting their needs. Occupants’ compliance is a fundamental requirement for a successful adoption of building automation systems. An important warning regards that such “smart behaviour” of the building should match with the occupants’ satisfaction and their feeling of controlling the living environments. A balance between energy efficiency and occupants’ needs is required. This paper aims at providing insight on the concept of “Smart Home” considering the adaptive actions performed by occupants to restore their wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupants’ behaviour related to building control system plays a significant role to achieve thermal comfort and air quality in naturally-ventilated buildings. Generally, the published models of occupant's behavior are not validated, meaning that the predictive power has not yet been tested. For this reason, the validation of occupant's behavioral models is an issue that is gaining importance. In this paper validation was carried out through dynamic Building Energy Performance simulation (BEPS); behavioral models of windows opening and thermostats set-point published in literature were implemented in a dynamic BEPS software and the obtained results in terms of temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration were compared to real measurements. Through this comparison it will be possible to verify the accuracy of the implemented behavioral models. The models were able to reproduce the general tendencies in the measured temperatures but the simulation results diverged from the measured CO2 concentrations and relative humidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work shows the results of a field study about indoor thermal comfort, based on investigations in Portuguese secondary schools' classrooms. The surveys herein presented were carried out in a school in Beja, in the South-East of Portugal. The field study was conducted by physical parameters monitoring and survey questionnaires. Both field monitoring and subjective surveys were performed at the same time during the regular class period (either at the end or at the beginning of the class). The measurement campaign consisted in measuring the environmental parameters – air temperature ( T a ), air relative humidity (RH), CO 2 concentrations. Outdoor air temperature values were registered hourly at the nearest climatological station. Through these data, along with the actual people clothing and metabolic rate being know, both Fanger's comfort indices were calculated (predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied people). The subjective survey investigated the thermal acceptability, the thermal sensation and the thermal preference. The judgments about the thermal environment were compared with the results of the field measurements. Draught preference votes, air stiffness and global air quality votes were also collected. The results show that the students found temperature range beyond the comfort zone acceptable, and revealed the occupants' accommodation to CO 2 exposure, confirming the results obtained in other studies. Moreover, it was verified that running on naturally ventilation mode, CO 2 concentration limits were highly exceeded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study describes three different data mining techniques for detecting abnormal lighting energy consumption using hourly recorded energy consumption and peak demand (maximum power) data. Two outliers’ detection methods are applied to each class and cluster for detecting abnormal consumption in the same data set. In each class and cluster with anomalous consumption the amount of variation from normal is determined using modified standard scores. The study will be helpful for building energy management systems to reduce operating cost and time by not having to detect faults manually or diagnose false warnings. In addition, it will be useful for developing fault detection and diagnosis model for the whole building energy consumption. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Every single artefact, either exhibited in a museum or as an integral part of a historical building, needs a controlled microclimate in order to be preserved. Since a monitoring program can support decisions and actions aimed at preventing the deterioration of vulnerable objects, the need to observe the environmental parameter status and variations over time is of primary importance in museums. In this paper a methodology to evaluate the microclimatic quality in museums is presented, in accordance with the Italian Standard UNI 10829 focused on the statistical analysis of the data. The methodology, based on a medium/long-term monitoring aims at determining a synthetic index to judge the microclimate quality related to the requirements to avoid preservation risks. The measured data are compared with the required values for artefact preservation. The thermal quality is evaluated by the “performance index”, which expresses the percentage of time in which the required parameters do not match. The procedure is applied for the thermal qualification of a temporary exhibit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This work shows the results of a field study about indoor thermal comfort, based on investigations in Italian classrooms. The surveys were carried out in Turin, in the North–West of Italy. The monitoring campaigns were performed during the mid season, in free running conditions. This study follows a previous one based on a monitoring campaign performed during the heating season. The responses from these two different configurations were integrated, analyzed and compared. The field study was conducted by physical observations, survey questionnaires and behavioral observations. Both field measurements and subjective surveys were performed at the same time during the regular lesson period. Thermal environment parameters were measured: indoor air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air relative humidity, air velocity and outdoor air temperature. Through these data, Fanger''s comfort indices were calculated (predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied people), the actual people clothing and metabolic rate being known; furthermore an adaptive model was applied to obtain acceptable ranges for the indoor operative temperature, in function of the outdoor climatic conditions. The subjective survey investigated the thermal sensation, the thermal acceptability and the thermal preference, using subjective scales. The subjective judgments about the thermal environment were compared with the results of the field measurements. Moreover, the thermal sensation votes were compared with the votes of acceptability and preference. The responses from this study and from the previous one, performed during the heating season, were compared. The results show a trend characterized by a gradual change in the thermal preference from the heating season to the mid and warm season. In fact, the results show a preference for environments judged slightly warm or warm during the heating period and a preference for neutral environments in the mid season. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study deal with the analysis of the effectiveness of free cooling ventilation strategies coupled with thermal mass activation to reduce peak cooling loads. A numerical simulation of the temperatures distribution of an office placed in Milan, Italy, during the month of July, is conducted on a Simulink® dynamical model. No air-conditioned system is present but two different free cooling systems are analysed and compared. Both systems act a primary ventilation during the day and a night ventilation during the non-occupancy period but the first is a traditional mixing ventilation system, the other is a thermal mass activation system, i.e. the outdoor ventilation air, before entering the room, flows through the ducts of the hollow core concrete ceiling slab. The performances of the two systems are investigated by means of time profile analyses of indoor operative temperatures and by means of frequency temperature distributions during the occupancy period. The cooling performances are measured by two different discomfort indexes: one represents the discomfort time percentage during occupation period, the other the discomfort weighted on the distance of calculated operative temperature from the acceptable temperature interval. This paper, in last analysis, tries to highlight the possibilities on cooling loads reduction and on thermal comfort increase in Mediterranean climate, connected to new strategies for thermal mass activation and night ventilation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This work shows some of the results of a field study about environmental comfort investigations in classrooms. In this project thermal, acoustic, visual and air quality aspects were analysed in a number of classrooms—13 classrooms at four different high schools of the Provincia di Torino and four typical medium-sized university classrooms of the Politecnico di Torino, Italy. The investigations were carried out during the heating period. Both field measurements and subjective surveys were performed at the same time during the regular lesson periods. This paper focuses on thermal comfort, which may have a significant effect on the students’ performance, in terms of attention, comprehension and learning levels. The measurement campaign consisted in measuring the thermal environment parameters—air temperature, mean radiant temperatures, air relative humidity and air velocity. Through these data, the thermal comfort Fanger''s indices (predicted mean vote (PMV), and predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD)people) were calculated, the actual people clothing and metabolic rate being known. The subjective survey involved questions on the thermal environmental perception. They basically investigated the thermal environment acceptability and preference. Moreover, a judgement based on the typical seven point thermal sensation scale (Fanger 7-points scale) was also asked. Through the elaboration of the questionnaire data, the actual percentage of dissatisfied (PD) people of the felt thermal environment was evaluated. The judgements about the thermal environment were compared with the results of the field measurements. Moreover, the subjective mean votes were compared with the thermal environment perceptions in terms of acceptability and preference. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]