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In recent years, several studies have been performed to evaluate the actual contribute of Opaque Ventilated Facades (OVF) as far as the energy efficiency of buildings in the summer period is concerned. In this framework an experimental real-scale module of an OVF was built and tested. Results demonstrated a reduction of ∼58% of the thermal load obtained by using a OVF with respect to the unventilated facade configuration. In this paper the experimental measurements were used to calibrate dynamic simulations using ESP-r software, in order to identify the input factors and the key issues mainly impacting on the results discrepancy.

Because of the transposition of the European Directive 2010/31/EU, Italy will also be forced to adopt systems and procedures aimed at verifying and checking buildings’ energy performance certificates. Through the compliance clause, some regions and autonomous provinces have already realized a certification and control system that, consistent with the European Directive, has achieved excellent results. Since 2011 the Emilia-Romagna region has foreseen and experimentally started a verification and control system on the energy performance certificates in order to check their completeness and correctness. In this way, certificates’ data are examined from the point of view of adequacy and coherence, and the quality of the information about the energy efficiency of buildings can be improved. The results of the verifications carried out on the certificates have proved to be interesting: a considerable amount of the energy certificates registered in 2011 contained at least a technical, even serious, inconsistency. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to analyse the results obtained by the authors during the experimental campaign focusing on the recurring mistakes during compilation and on the wrong interpretations of the relative standards (both regional and national) by the energy certification bodies.

Energy efficiency has become a common target for every building: the European Directive 2010/31 provides that by 2020 every new building must consume very little fossil energy (Nearly Zero Energy Building) and from 2018 also public buildings will have to meet this requirement. Although the objectives imposed by the new legislative references are very clear, modify the existing heritage in many cases is not easy. For example, many buildings, including public ones, in addition to consuming a lot of energy, are also constrained by the Superintendence for Architectural, Landscape, Historical and Artistic Assets; therefore it becomes difficult to improve their energy performance. This paper presents a preliminary energy audit of the historical building of the School of Engineering and Architecture in Bologna (Italy). It was built in the 30s, is one of several public buildings of particular historical and architectural interest for the city of Bologna and it is constrained architecturally. Special attention has been focused on the energy consumption for heating during the winter season. The audit was carried out taking into account the European standard EN 15603, using the method of energy signature based on actual consumption. The results of the energy analysis show an energy saving of about 15% with operations building management and over 30% with improvements of the heating system and the windows.