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Bu çalışmada termostatik radyatör vanası (TRV) kullanımının enerji verimliliği üzerindeki etkilerinin gözlemlenebilmesi için, 98.8 m2 net kullanım alanına sahip bir dairede deneyler yapılmıştır. Deneyler, önce radyatörler üzerinde normal vanalar takılı iken yapılmış daha sonra mevcut vanalar termostatik vanalarla değiştirilerek deneyler tekrarlanmıştır. TRV’ler sayesinde her odanın sıcaklığı ayarlanan değerde sabit tutulabilmiş ve konforlu bir ısınma sağlandığı gözlemlenmiştir. TRV kullanımı radyatörler üzerindeki sıcaklık dağılımları homojenize etmiş ve radyatörün gereksiz yere ısınmasını engelleyerek doğal gaz tasarrufu sağlamıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre TRV sayesinde doğal gaz tüketiminin günde 1.4 m3 azaltılabileceği hesaplanmıştır. Bu değer, aylık 41.82 m3 ve yılda 6 aylık bir kullanım ile 250.9 m3’lük doğal gaz tasarrufu anlamına gelmektedir. Mevcut doğal gaz fiyatları dikkate alınırsa yıllık 577.1 ₺’lik bir tasarruf söz konusudur. Daireye birim fiyatı 150 ₺ olan toplamda 7 adet termostatik vana takılmış ve geri ödeme süresi 1.67 yıl olarak hesaplanmıştır. Ayrıca yakıt tüketimindeki azalmaya bağlı olarak çevreye salınan CO2 miktarında yıllık 470 kg civarında bir azaltım yapılabileceği gözlemlenmiştir., In this study, experiments were carried out in an apartment with a net area of 98.8 m2 in order to observe the effects of using a thermostatic radiator valve (TRV) on energy efficiency. Experiments were performed with normal valves installed on the radiators, then the existing valves were replaced with thermostatic valves and the experiments were repeated. Thanks to the TRVs, the temperature of each room could be kept constant at the set value and it was observed that a comfortable heating was provided. The use of TRV homogenized the temperature distributions on the radiators and provided natural gas savings by preventing unnecessary heating of the radiator. According to the results obtained, it has been calculated that natural gas consumption can be reduced by 1.4 m3 per day thanks to TRV. This value means a natural gas saving of 41.82 m3 per month and 250.9 m3 with a 6-month usage per year. Considering the current natural gas prices, there is an annual saving of 577.1 ₺. A total of 7 thermostatic valves with a unit price of 150 ₺ were installed in the flat and the payback period was calculated as 1.67 years. In addition, it has been observed that a reduction of around 470 kg per year can be made in the amount of CO2 released to the environment due to the decrease in fuel consumption.

As a result of the developing technology, the increasing population, level of prosperity and industrialization, the need for energy and consumption of energy have increased in the world and in Turkey. Due to rapid depletion of energy resources, limited fossil fuel reserves and the environmental and economic problems associated with the aforementioned fuels, it has become necessary to use energy more effectively and efficiently in areas such as industry, buildings and services. Considering that buildings are responsible for the consumption of approximately 25% of water resources, approximately 40% of energy resources and approximately 33% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, it is seen that buildings are among the priority issues that should be addressed in the field of energy and environment.In this study, the energy performance of residential buildings, accounting for 86.8 % of the building stock in Turkey, was examined on the basis of provinces and countrywide for the period of 2015-2017. The total factor productivity of the provinces in Turkey was explored within the scope of energy efficiency in buildings by setting up 2 models based on the Energy Identity Certificate. Input oriented Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index methods were used to measure the total factor productivity, efficiency and technological changes of the provinces. Taking into account the inputs and outputs of the models a general assessment was made on the basis of provinces and countrywide according to the results of the analysis and suggestions were made to guide decision-makers., Gelişen teknoloji, artan nüfus, refah düzeyi ile sanayileşme neticesinde dünyada ve Türkiye’de enerjiye duyulan ihtiyaç ve enerji tüketimi artmıştır. Enerji kaynaklarının hızla azalması, fosil yakıt rezervlerinin sınırlı olması ve söz konusu kaynakların çevresel ve ekonomik problemlere yol açması nedeniyle enerjinin sanayi, bina, hizmet gibi alanlarda daha etkin ve verimli kullanılması zorunlu hale gelmiştir. Dünya genelinde su kaynaklarının yaklaşık %25’inin, enerji kaynaklarının yaklaşık %40’ının tüketiminden ve sera gazı emisyon salımının da yaklaşık %33’ünden binaların sorumlu olduğu göz önünde bulundurulduğunda binaların enerji ve çevre alanında öncelikle ele alınması gereken konuların başında geldiği görülmektedir.Yapılan bu çalışmada Türkiye’deki bina stoğunun % 86,8 ’ini oluşturan konut tipi binaların 2015-2017 yılları arasındaki enerji performansları il ve ülke bazında incelenmiş, binalarda enerji verimliliği kapsamında illerin toplam faktör verimlilikleri araştırılmıştır. Analizde Enerji Kimlik Belgesi uygulaması üzerinden 2 model kurulmuştur. Etkinlik ölçümünde girdiye yönelik Veri Zarflama Analizi ile Malmquist Toplam Faktör Verimliliği endeksinden yararlanılarak illerin ve Türkiye’nin toplam faktör verimlilik değişimi ile etkinlik ve teknolojik değişimleri hesaplanmıştır. Analiz sonuçlarına göre modellerdeki girdi ve çıktılar dikkate alınarak il bazında ve Türkiye genelinde genel bir değerlendirme yapılmış ve karar vericilere yol gösterecek önerilerde bulunulmuştur.

The CO2-neutral self-supply of heat and electric energy is an important objective for new and existing buildings in the future [1] , [2] . Therefor the energy autonomous house (EAH) as a new concept for single-family buildings in central Europe is presented. It represents a further development of the solar and efficiency house concepts based on full self-sufficiency in thermal (partly provided by a fireplace) and electrical energy (100%). Two occupied houses have been built in Germany and they are under an extensive scientific monitoring with real user behavior since 2014. This contribution is focused on thermal energy balances and the differences due to different user behavior and the influence of weather conditions. The evaluated solar fraction was fsol, th ≥ 71.4% and fsol, el ≥ 91.8% for both houses in 2014. So far the 100% autonomy in electricity could not be reached due to the unusual low irradiation in Jan. and Dec. 2014 (-24% / -37% compared to long term values). Nevertheless the planned low electricity consumption of ∼ 2000 kWh/year could nearly be achieved, whereby a self-consumption rate of electric energy gains of ≥ 31.8% were assumed. Further findings of 1 ½ years of monitoring of the two EAH are presented within the paper.

The use of PCMs for improving buildings’ thermal comfort conditions and reducing summer cooling need has been largely investigated in the last decade. The capability of these materials of storing heat in latent form has been pointed out, especially when integrated in building envelopes. This paper deals with the analysis of the benefits in terms of buildings’ energy saving generated by the integration of PCMs inside two types of membrane for roofing applications, i.e. a traditional bitumen membrane and an innovative cool polyurethane-based membrane. To this aim, the dynamic simulation of the energy performance of a test-room was carried out. Four configurations were simulated and compared: (i) roof covered by a bitumen sheet membrane, (ii) roof covered by a cool membrane, (iii) the cool membrane with integrated PCMs, and (iv) the bitumen membrane with integrated PCMs. Both winter and summer conditions were studied. The results showed that PCMs integrated into the cool membrane are able to guarantee a 10.4% cooling energy saving, while PCMs integrated into the bitumen membrane generate a 12.6% of energy reduction for cooling if compared to the only bitumen membrane. The same roof configurations without taking into account the roof insulation layer generate a reduction of the cooling energy requirement of about 9.4% and 16.6%, respectively. In winter conditions, the reduction of the heating demand generated by the integration of PCMs inside the bitumen membrane is about 4.4% and 6.9%, with and without considering the roof insulation, respectively. Additionally, the heating energy saving generated by including PCMs into the cool membrane is equal to 5.4% and 8.4%, with and without considering the roof insulation layer, respectively. These results demonstrated that the integration of PCMs in both cool and non-cool roof membranes is able to reduce building energy requirement in both summer and winter conditions, especially in non-insulated roof configuration.

The requirement of a minimum air flow rates in dwellings is new in the Spanish regulation. The value of the minimum air flow rate for each room of the dwelling depends on the type of room, its occupation or its dimensions. To achieve these air flow rates, in the houses built in the Basque Country, mechanical ventilation systems are installed, usually: simple flow with continuous extraction, hygrorregulated simple flow or double flow with heat recovery ventilation systems. The permeability of the envelope is a very important parameter, that must be cared for the correct performance of the ventilation system installed. This performance must be measured in terms of energy consumption, but also in terms of indoor air quality, because the objective of the ventilation system is to ensure an adequate indoor air quality. It has been analyzed the quality of indoor air and the energy consumption of a dwelling for the three systems of ventilation, and for three levels of permeability. The analysis of the indoor air quality has been done checking 15 contaminants. As conclusion, we can say that in the case of the two simple flow ventilation systems, the permeability affect mainly on the indoor air quality, but in the case of the double flow with heat recovery ventilation systems on the energy consumption.

Research effort was dedicated to the analysis of museums microclimate for the preservation of artifacts and indoor environment. In this paper, continuous monitoring and dynamic simulation of an ancient exhibition site are carried out to evaluate indoor microclimate and energy performance. The aim is to develop a multidisciplinary methodology for preserving artworks and historic buildings in the view of sustainability and comfort. The paper also shows how the environmental conditions of two thermal zones different for geometry, occupancy, ventilation rate, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are far from the values suggested by the regulations for the preservation of artifacts and from human comfortable set points of temperature and relative humidity. This work highlights the need for further investigation of historical exposition sites to reduce artworks' damaging and occupants' environmental stress. Practical application: Many historical buildings in European countries host exhibition sites. Indoor microclimate of such areas is often inappropriate for visitors' comfort, for artworks', and building preservation. In fact, usually HVAC systems operate according to simple temperature-based control protocols. This study shows how old architectures could present indoor environmental conditions far from the target, for artworks' preservation, for occupants' comfort, and for the building maintenance. This paper presents a numerical–experimental methodology applied to an architectural heritage. The analysis gives insight on this issue, and could guide building operators and service management to investigate and optimize indoor environmental conditions where artworks are preserved.

The sustainability of the built environment largely depends on its energy and environmental performances. The overall objective, across the different phases of the building life cycle such as design phase, construction phase, commissioning phase, operation phase and eventually refurbishment phase, is to improve building and system performances in terms of economics, comfort, environmental impact and durability. Numerical simulation tools and optimization methods are needed to properly evaluate all the key performance indicators simultaneously, unveiling the existing gaps and identifying possible synergies and strategies in the performance estimation and decision-making processes for the building life cycle. Further, several modelling methodologies have been developed in order to evaluate the energy performance of buildings. Generally, every modelling methodology responds effectively to some specific tasks, but there exists a lack of integration in the overall optimization process. Given the multi-scale and multi-objective nature of the problem of optimization of the energy and environmental performances of the built environment, subject to economic and comfort constraints, an appropriate synthesis and integration process in modelling methodologies has to be identified, addressing realistically the uncertainties inherently present in every modelling strategy. Data analysis and optimization techniques are successfully used in a wide variety of applications. Although these techniques have proven to be successful in both theoretical and applied domains, questions remains about their applicability for the problems introduced before. These questions involve primarily the robustness and efficiency of solutions procedures and the ability to identify relevant properties and to deal with large quantities of data. The paper aims to analyse critically these topics by means of case studies, showing a possible path to create an integrated methodology able to synthesize all the relevant aspects previously mentioned.

A previous study has evidenced the poor energy performances of a building owned by the University of Naples Federico II. In detail, a reliable energy audit, by means of calibrated input, has been performed, and it revealed energy requests, polluting emissions and energy costs very high. By taking into consideration the exemplary role of the public hand, according to the EU Directives 2010/31/EE and 2012/27/EU, here a cost-optimal energy refurbishment is proposed, by analysing several energy efficiency measures, firstly singularly analysed and then combined in order to evaluate the super-positon effect.

The public hand has a demonstrative role in matter of energy efficiency of owned or occupied buildings. Here, the energy audit of a high-rise university building is proposed. The methodology adopts the Cost-Optimal approach, as imposed by the European guidelines (EU Directive 2010/31/EU), based on feasibility studies performed with transient energy simulations. In particular, in situ surveys (infrared thermography and measurements of U-values) have been used for building, as detailed as possible, the building model for the numerical study. The analysis evidenced high-energy demands, mainly for the space heating and cooling. A second study discusses a cost-effective energy retrofit.

The role of building occupants in energy-savings opportunities is attracting the attention of professionals and scientists with the purpose of developing innovative and effective strategies for energy efficiency in buildings. People’s awareness about energy consumption, and the “green” attitudes of building occupants, have been acknowledged to be responsible for reducing energy demand in buildings. In light of this view, this chapter discusses how to describe and take advantage of people’s behavior in building thermal-energy assessment issues. Finally, the literature dealing with the possibility of triggering energy-conscious behaviors and further cost-effective energy-savings opportunities, i.e., the human-based energy retrofit, is discussed.

This chapter investigates strategies for approaching the energy refurbishment of historic buildings, by proposing, beyond a general methodology aimed at guaranteeing feasibility of the design, its application to two cases studies in the context of South Italy, in a typical Mediterranean climate according to the Koppen classification. According to the latest international guidelines in matter of building energy efficiency and future trends, by 2020, a great effort should be applied to both new constructions and building refurbishments, to achieve goals of nearly zero-energy impacts or very low energy demand. Of course, the energy refurbishment of architectures characterized by historical or artistic values should not determine damage of the valuable peculiarities. In this study, by means of the proposed case studies, and thus an admirable Italian building, examples of an approach toward cost-effective and architecturally compatible actions are proposed, according to the European methodology of cost optimality. Moreover, by comparison with the feasible refurbishment of an existing building, the difference in energy retrofit designs of historical or modern edifices is evidenced. The proposed case studies are an educational ancient palace built beginning in the 12th century and, as an existing building, a railway station located in the same city. In both cases, replacement of components of thermal envelope and active energy systems will be applied, by evidencing that, based on the building peculiarities, technologies, architectural values, and kinds of loads, different boundary conditions imply different cost-optimal energy conservation measures.

Thermal infrared imaging is a valuable tool to perform non-destructive qualitative tests and to investigate buildings envelope thermal-energy behavior. The assessment of envelope thermal insulation, ventilation, air leakages, and HVAC performance can be implemented through the analysis of each thermogram corresponding to an object surface temperature. Thermography also allows the identification of thermal bridges in buildings’ envelope that, together with windows and doors, constitute one of the weakest component increasing thermal losses. A quantitative methodology was proposed in previous researches by the authors in order to evaluate the effect of such weak point on the energy balance of the whole building. In the present work, in-field experimental measurements were carried out with the purpose of evaluating the energy losses through the envelope of a test room experimental field. In-situ thermal transmittance of walls, ceiling and roof were continuously monitored and each element was characterized by its own thermal insulation capability. Infrared thermography and the proposed quantitative methodology were applied to assess the energy losses due to thermal bridges. The main results show that the procedure confirms to be a reliable tool to quantify the incidence of thermal bridges in the envelope thermal losses.

Research about building strategies for energy saving is taking a growing interest worldwide. New solutions for building envelopes require increasingly sophisticated investigation to analyze the thermal-energy in-field dynamic response of constructions. Moreover, in-lab experiments are difficultly able to represent real environment boundary conditions. In this paper, effect of dynamic properties of building opaque envelope is investigated in winter conditions through an extensive continuous monitoring campaign of a dedicated experimental field. The field consists of: two full-scale buildings, an outdoor weather station, and two indoor microclimate stations. The two buildings were designed with the same stationary envelope characteristics, but different envelope technologies, materials and, therefore, different dynamic properties. Nevertheless, following Italian regulations about building energy performance in winter, they should behave the same. With the purpose to verify this hypothesis, a continuous long-term comparative monitoring is developed. The results only partly confirm that simplified hypothesis. In fact, in winter, while the two buildings exhibit equivalent long-term energy behavior, a weak difference is registered in terms of air temperature in free-floating, transient, and operative HVAC systems’ regime. Additionally, non-negligible discrepancies are registered in terms of mean radiant temperature, indoor humidity and internal–external envelope surface temperature, given the different transpiration rate of the two envelope systems and different solar reflectance values of the roofs.

Marble is a natural material, used in the construction field since antiquity. It has always been used to communicate monumentality and solidity. Nowadays new technologies permit marble to express new languages: particularly, translucent marble technology overturns the concept of solidity. The main issue to address is the lack of thermal-energy performance of such a thin stone layer as the only facade component. Conversely, Bianco Carrara and Statuario marbles, for instance, have intrinsic benefits as natural cool materials, due to their high solar reflectance and thermal emissivity. Thus, this paper analyzes the thermal-energy and environmental behavior of marble facade for a new designed building in New York City. An integrated analysis of the energy performance of the marble skin is performed through a preliminary experimental characterization, carried out for two different types of naturally white marble, for comparative purposes. Then, a dynamic simulation model of the building is developed to evaluate year-round benefits and drawbacks of the translucent marble envelope in terms of indoor thermal comfort and air-conditioning requirement. The analysis showed how the proposed marble facade is able to decrease the energy requirement for cooling up to 6%, demonstrating possible relevant perspectives for marble-based facades, even in energy-efficient buildings.

Cool roofs represent an acknowledged passive cooling technique to reduce building energy consumption for cooling and to mitigate urban heat island effects. This paper concerns the evaluation of the dynamic effect of new cool roof clay tiles on building thermal performance in summer and winter conditions. To this end, these properties have been analyzed on traditional roof brick tiles through an indoor and outdoor two-year long continuous monitoring campaign set up in a residential building located in central Italy. The analysis and the cooperation with industrial companies producing brick tiles and reflective coatings allowed the production of a new tile with notable “cool roof” properties through the traditional industrial manufacturing path of such tiles. Notable results show that during summer the high reflection tiles are able to decrease the average external roof surface temperature by more than 10 °C and the indoor operative temperature by more than 3 °C. During winter the average external surface temperature is lower with high reflection tiles by about 1 °C. Singular optic-thermal phenomena are registered while evaluating the dynamics of the cool roof effect. Interesting findings show how the sloped cool roof application could suggest further considerations about the dynamic effect of cool roofs.

Innovative and traditional solutions for roof coating and urban paving are under development in order to study their effect both as passive cooling strategies for buildings and as effective tools for urban heat island mitigation. This paper deals with the optic-energy in-lab and numerical analysis of three materials used for roof covering and urban paving in Italy. Bitumen covering, cool painting and natural gravel covering are taken into account. Solar reflectance measurements shows that gravel optimize this property by more than 20% with respect to the bitumen covering of classic streets paving. The three materials are also evaluated in terms of roof covering in commercial buildings with flat roofs. Dynamic simulation results demonstrated that innovative cool membranes are able to optimize building year-round energy efficiency by 19.3%. Nevertheless, natural gravel covering produce important energy saving (15.6%) with respect to bitumen roof membrane configuration.

Environmental certification is a key issue for improving energy efficiency, minimizing energy consumption and allowing greater transparency on energy uses in buildings. If sustainability of the building process is an already consolidated issue for new constructions, as well as for existing buildings, for traditional and historic buildings a dedicated consideration still must be carried out, due to the major complexity of the variables to be taken into account. This paper deals with the criticality of applying LEED® Italia rating systems for New Construction and Major Renovation to the case study of an ancient stable located in correspondence to a Middle Age fortress in Perugia, Italy. This gap analysis process shows the weakness of existing tools when applied to the historical context, by highlighting the need of a new assessment framework in case of restoration and preservation processes. GBC Historic Building™, a new rating system that GBC Italia is now developing, offers the opportunity to combine framework and criteria of the International LEED® standards and the specific knowledge of the restoration and preservation theory and practice. The case study highlights possible modifications and integrations of the existing LEED®/GBC topics, with the ultimate purpose of bridging the gap between energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and cultural heritage preservation.

This article reports on the performance of a ground source heat pump system installed in a New Municipality Hall in Northern Greece over an eight-year operation period. The system consists of a vertical ground heat exchanger, 21 boreholes in 80 m depth, 11 water-to-water heat pump units. Basic parameters of its operation are continuously monitoring by a data acquisition system. Based on these recordings, heat transfer flows from/to the building and the ground were calculated in order to estimate the performance of the system. It is found that the maximum ground heat exchanger load reaches 50 W/m in heating operation while in cooling mode it ranges between 20 and 210 W/m. The Weekly Performance Factor of the heat pumps as well as the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio were found to be between 5.0–6.2 and 4.5–5.5 in heating mode and 4.1–5.9 and 3.6–4.5 in cooling mode, respectively. Compared to a conventional heating and cooling system for this building, the ground source heat pump consumes 25.7% less primary energy and emits lower CO2 and NOx emissions by 22.7% and 99.6% respectively, but its SO2 emissions are 18.4% higher.

Most of the pitched roofs of existing buildings in Europe are covered by non-white roofing products, e.g., clay tiles. Typical, cost effective, cool roof solutions are not applicable to these buildings due to important constraints deriving from: (i) the owners of homes with roofs visible from the ground level; (ii) the regulation about the preservation of the historic architecture and the minimization of the visual environment impact, in particular in historic centers. In this perspective, the present paper deals with the development of high reflective coatings with the purpose to elaborate “cool” tiles with the same visual appearance of traditional tiles for application to historic buildings. Integrated experimental analyses of reflectance, emittance, and superficial temperature were carried out. Deep analysis of the reflectance spectra is undertaken to evaluate the effect of different mineral pigments, binders, and an engobe basecoat. Two tile typologies are investigated: substrate-basecoat-topcoat three-layer tile and substrate-topcoat two-layer tile. The main results show that the developed coatings are able to increase the overall solar reflectance by more than 20% with acceptable visual appearance, suitable for application in historic buildings. Additionally, the effect of a substrate engobe layer allows some further contribution to the increase of the overall reflectance characteristics.

Inter-building effect is responsible for affecting buildings’ primary energy requirement for heating, cooling, and lighting. Nevertheless, the impact of natural ventilation should also be considered while predicting building energy demand, since it is documented to substantially affect indoor environmental quality and thermal comfort. This paper investigates the impact of natural ventilation on building primary energy requirement prediction. The Inter-Building Effect (IBE) approach is applied in a typical residential block in Italy. A sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the key input parameter among (i) climate boundary, (ii) infiltration rate, (iii) opening percentage, and (iv) wind strength. Two scenarios, i.e. the stand-alone building and the same building surrounded by its neighborhood, are compared. The thermal-energy dynamic simulation of the different scenarios is carried out to investigate the impact of outdoor airflows on building primary energy requirement for heating and cooling and on indoor thermal comfort, investigated by means of the Thermal Deviation Index method. Inaccuracies in energy need prediction imputable to natural ventilation without taking into account the IBE are detected. The findings show that IBE is much more affected by buildings’ opening percentage, infiltration rate, and local wind compared to the weather context since IBE is a local microscale phenomenon.

Buildings are responsible for about the 40% of the global annual energy consumption, therefore, innovative strategies for buildings’ energy efficiency are under development. Strategies of re-roofing with “cool” materials have a non-negligible cooling energy saving potential, as they contribute to the reduction of the peak ambient temperatures during summer and, moreover, they contribute to the improvement of the urban microclimate by decreasing the intensity of heat island phenomena. In this paper, the experimental characterization and optimization of a new membrane for buildings’ roof is carried out. To this aim, laboratory measurements were performed to determine its optic-energy properties and, therefore, to optimize its “cool roof” behavior. A full scale field test was also setup in order to measure the global solar radiation reflected by each membrane, before and after optimization, with varying boundary conditions, e.g. time during the day, seasonal period, and weather conditions. The in-field experimental campaign allowed to characterize the optic-energy behavior of the cool membranes in real boundary conditions, showing non-negligible variation of measured solar reflection capability with varying environmental constraints in winter conditions. The research showed interesting results from the in-lab optimization campaign, and non-negligible unreliability due to environmental agents affecting in-field albedo measurement.

This chapter discusses different platforms for buildings exploiting novel technologies based on sensor networks, smart meters and database management systems to collect and store energy-related data. It also discusses novel analytical tools and data mining algorithms proposed in the literature for buildings to (i) characterize energy consumption, (ii) identify the main factors that increase energy consumption, (iii) detect faults, and (iv) enhance user energy awareness. Finally, the perspectives offered by energy-related data analytics are outlined, showing how analysis techniques can be profitably exploited to enhance user energy awareness and reduce building energy consumption.

The achievement of building indoor thermal comfort conditions with the minimum energy need represents a challenge for both designers and researchers. To this aim, the development of passive strategies, e.g. cool roofs, for reducing the thermal gain entering building envelopes has spread in the scientific community. In this view, Computational Fluid Dynamic method is applied in this research in order to quantify the effect of a cool roof solution within the indoor environment of the thermal zone adjacent to the roof, by analyzing the attic local conditions. The case study is represented by an attic room of a continuously monitored residential building located in central Italy. A two-dimensional finite element analysis is carried out to investigate the indoor air temperature and air velocity field inside the attic. The available experimental data are used for validation. Therefore, the thermal profiles generated by (i) the roof with traditional brown-colored brick tiles and (ii) the same roof with innovative cool clay tiles are investigated. The final purpose is to compare the indoor thermal comfort conditions generated within the vertical cross section of the attic, in order to study the cool roof effect at different height of occupants' body. The main results show up to 2.79 K and 1.54 K air temperature difference between the cool and traditional roof configurations, in summer and winter conditions, respectively. A thermal stratification is detected during summer inside the attic, leading to strongly non homogeneous comfort conditions, particularly marked in the “hot” tiles scenario, demonstrating the usefulness of this contribution.

The capability of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) to improve indoor thermal comfort conditions and reduce cooling energy demand when included in building components is widely acknowledged. In particular, the possibility to integrate PCMs in building envelopes for latent heat storage has been largely investigated in the last decades. This study deals with the development and prototyping of an innovative cool polyurethane based membrane with PCMs inclusion for roofing applications. The thermal-optical properties of such membrane are determined through laboratory analyses. Additionally, calorimetry and nanoscale morphological tests are carried out in order to verify the effectiveness of PCM inclusion into the medium and to define the thermal storage/release potential of PCMs with transition points at 25 °C and 55 °C. The composite membrane showed good workability properties even with high (i.e. 35%) PCM concentration. Optical properties were modified in the superficial layer by PCM inclusion, meaning that a further non-composite finishing layer of polyurethane is required to complete the field application of the new building material. Also, a promising thermal behavior and a consistent and effective increase of phase change enthalpy was registered with increasing PCM concentration within the polyurethane membrane. Therefore, the combination of cool materials and thermal storage effect produced promising results as passive technique for building thermal-energy efficiency, also highlighted by the relatively simple production process of the shape stabilized PCM inclusion. The work is partially funded by the Spanish Government (ENE2011-22722) and by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia within the framework of the project UMBRA ARTIS (cod. 201.0223.021). The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research groups GREA (2014 SGR 123). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE) and from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 657466 (INPATH-TES).

none 3 no tThe sustainability of the built environment largely depends on its energy and environmental perform-ances. The overall objective, across the different phases of the building life cycle, is to improve buildingand system performances in terms of economics, comfort, environmental impact and durability.Several modelling methodologies have been developed in order to evaluate the energy performanceof buildings. Generally, every modelling methodology responds effectively to some specific tasks, butthere exists a lack of integration in particular with respect to the cross-disciplinary role of data. Given themulti-scale and multi-objective nature of the problem of optimization of the energy and environmentalperformances of the built environment, an appropriate synthesis and integration process in modellingmethodologies has to be identified, addressing realistically the uncertainties inherently present in mod-elling strategies.Visualization and data analysis techniques are successfully used in a wide variety of applications, bothin theoretical and applied domains, but questions remains about their robustness, efficiency and appli-cability to the problems introduced before. The paper aims to analyze critically these topics by meansof case studies, showing a possible path to create a multi-scale methodology able to synthesize all therelevant aspects. mixed Tronchin, Lamberto; Manfren, Massimiliano; Lavinia Chiara, Tagliabue Tronchin, Lamberto; Manfren, Massimiliano; Lavinia Chiara, Tagliabue

Natural and bio-based construction materials represent a promising solution for optimizing buildings' environmental sustainability. In this view, the paper presents the multipurpose experimental thermo-acoustic characterization of common reed-based building panels. Different geometries, densities, humidity rates and stalk shapes were considered and tested by means of hot-plate, hot-box and impedance tube in-lab experimental benches. The thermal analysis showed that the geometry scarcely affects the thermal conductivity, which is around 0.05 W/mK and, therefore, comparable to other materials already commercialized for the same scope. On the other hand, the acoustic behavior is strongly affected by the stalk configuration, e.g. perpendicular, parallel or combined orientation with respect to the incident wave. In particular, the longitudinal stalk layout showed a significant sound ​absorption performance. The exhaustive experimental original characterization of such by-product, therefore, showed a very promising overall thermo-acoustic behavior. At the same time, for optimizing the panel field performance, the acoustic requirements should represent the panel design drivers, given the high sensitivity of the panel layout characteristics affecting the acoustic performance.

Summarization: The energy benchmarking, rating and classification of buildings are necessary procedures for energy certification scheme adoption, energy regulation establishment, energy-efficiency promotion and energy consumption reduction, according to the Directive 2002/91/EC and its implementation in EU member states. The aim of this paper is to investigate and present research works, tools and programs focused on energy benchmarking methods, energy rating procedures and classification schemes for the building sector. The European Committee for Standardization method of benchmarking and rating for buildings are analyzed, as well as a proposed integrated classification method based on the application of clustering techniques to virtual building data sets of office buildings in Greece. Παρουσιάστηκε στο: Journal of Advances in Building Energy Research

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the development and thermal-energy analysis of passive solutions for reducing building cooling needs and thus improving indoor thermal comfort conditions. In this view, several studies were carried out about cool roofs and cool coatings, producing acknowledged mitigation effects on urban heat island phenomenon. The purpose of this work is to investigate the thermal-energy performance of cool louvers of shutters, usually installed in residential buildings, compared to dark color traditional shading systems. To this aim, two full-scale prototype buildings were continuously monitored under summer conditions and the role of the cool shutter in reducing the overheating of the shading system and the energy requirements for cooling was analyzed. After an in-lab optical analysis of the cool coating, showing a huge solar reflectance increase with respect to the traditional configuration, i.e. , by about 75%, field monitoring results showed that the cool shutter is able to decrease the indoor air temperature up to 2 °C under free floating conditions. The corresponding energy saving was about 25%, with even much higher peaks during very hot summer conditions.

The paper focuses on the evaluation of the impact on residential buildings of innovative control logics defined for a rational utilization of the electric loads and air-conditioning systems. The control logics are implementable thanks to a Decision Support and Energy Management Systems developed by the same authors and easily installable in new and still-existing houses. The paper shows how a significant reduction of the primary energy consumption can be obtained by controlling the air-conditioning units together with the other electric loads of the house. After having explained how the control logics operate, a simulation tool is described, developed for a preliminary evaluation of their effects on the energy consumptions of residential buildings in the design stage. An application of the simulation tool on a typical house, considering different scenarios and varying the climatic conditions and the energy performance class of the envelope, is presented. Finally, a measurement campaign on two real existing houses, equipped with the Decision Support and Energy Management System, is described, and the effects of the control logics are assessed. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Clay tiles are the most common roof covering in Italian buildings, in particular in traditional residential buildings. Given the important role of the roof characteristics for building energy efficiency and indoor thermal comfort conditions, innovative solutions for improving the thermal-energy performance of such diffused roof element has become a key research issue. In this view, cool roof applications represent an effective solution to this aim. The present work deals with the analysis of innovative coatings for traditional clay tiles, aimed at increasing their “cooling” potential. Several pigments with the sodium silicate as binder are tested in terms of reflectance and emittance, which mainly determine the cool roof performance. Additionally, the year-round performance of the proposed tile is evaluated when applied to a single family residential building located in central Italy. The developed cool roof solution is characterized by the same visual appearance of traditional “natural brick” color tiles, while the solar reflectance is higher than natural terracotta tile by 13%. Therefore its thermal performance is optimized in order to reduce the roof overheating and the consequent energy requirement for cooling. Results of dynamic simulation of the case study building show how the proposed tile is able to decrease the number of hours when the indoor operative temperature of the attic is higher than 26°C by 18%, while the same effect in lowering the indoor temperature below 20°C in winter is less than 1%. Therefore, the proposed solution could be considered as an interesting strategy for new buildings or for traditional roof retrofitting, without producing any significant architectural impact, even in traditional or historic buildings, where more invasive solutions are too difficult to be implemented.

The studies presented here have shown that it is fully possible to influence energy consumption through information. An increase in the knowledge among consumers will motivate them to be more energy efficient. Since several interrelated factors are involved in this knowledge level, it is difficult to establish the individual influences but such factors as the electricity bills, electricity metering, discounting and even general information campaigns, have shown to give a positive results. Energy efficiency through investment leads to long lasting results, while the effects of behavioural change may diminish very rapidly. Various investigations have shown different results. Some of them showed decreasing effect after just a week whereas others led to significantly longer lasting results. There was, however, a tendency showing that the longer the duration of the trial or the larger the information quantity contributions were, the more prolonged were the effects.

The Directives 2002/91/CE and 2010/31/UE greatly evolved the building and real-estate sector towards low energy building, both in the case of building retrofitting and new buildings. Thanks to the Energy Performance Certificate influence on the real estate market, or thanks to the economic crisis, as it is some new buildings - the best - were built with Energy Class A or Nearly Zero classification. The Energy Building Performance standards, e.g. CEN Umbrella and their transposition, will be improved in the future, in spite of this these should be considered solid, and designers, architects and engineers must apply technical strategies (e.g. high insulation, reduction of air leakage, use of renewable systems) in order to reduce building energy consumption. The new challenge will be to improve relations between Building Energy Performance and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). As regards these relations, the CEN Umbrella provides to implement the Standard 15251. In the present paper we describe the results of IEQ monitoring in a low energy performance building (Class A+ less than 25 kWh/m 2 year). The results show that low energy performance building do not always guarantee a better category of IEQ, especially during the summer.

The article reviews the recent research contributions and future promising perspectives regarding innovation in concrete technologies for low-carbon applications in buildings. To this aim, an original classification of recent trends is presented for reducing the carbon footprint of concrete constructions by identifying three main research lines. The first one is related to the enhancement of physical and mechanical properties of concrete, the second one is related to resource efficiency and raw materials’ saving and the third one concerns the role of smart concretes in building energy efficiency. Possible synergies between the three addressed main research lines are finally discussed. The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 657466 (INPATH-TES). The corresponding author acknowledgements are due to the ‘CIRIAF program for UNESCO’ in the framework of the UNESCO Chair ‘Water Resources Management and Culture’, for supporting her research.

There is an incipient necessity and interest of generating sustainable materials for application in green buildings. In this study, the capability of Posidonia Oceanica seagrass, a biomass by-product from the Mediterranean coastlines, is analysed as a reinforcement material in adobe bricks. For this purpose, earthen specimens with these sea-plant fibres were compared with the most traditional additives for this purpose, i.e. straw-based adobes. Both biomass fibres were included with different lengths and quantities. First, to understand their behaviour, the fibres were evaluated; water absorption and tensile strength tests were performed. Test specimens themselves were subjected to mechanical and thermal tests as well as measuring dimensional changes. Tested as fibres, straw presented higher tensile resistance and water absorption than seagrass; but tested within adobe specimens, straw containing samples had worse mechanical behaviour than those containing seagrass. Specially, adobe with Posidonia Ocenaica seagrass fibres with their natural long length showed to be the most suitable in terms of mechanical behaviour. Furthermore, good thermal conductivity results were achieved with this level of biomass reinforcement, generating a sustainable and value-added construction product. This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31). The authors of this paper would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2017 SGR 1537). GREiA is certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. Dr. Pisello thanks Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia for supporting her research on bio-materials and circular economy (Project SOS CITTA’ – 2018.0499.026).

Thermally activated building systems (TABS) consist of pipes or ducts embedded in the building structure. This is a well-known technology for its capability to reduce energy use for cooling buildings. Additionally, TABS help integrating renewable energies, such as free-cooling with ground heat exchangers (GHE). However, TABS cooling load is sensitive to the internal load, and the use of GHE for free-cooling is limited to low energy buildings. In a previously published research, a radiant wall cubicle without internal gains demonstrated to achieve significant energy savings. However, the current research showed that under domestic and office scheduled internal gains equivalent to 42 W·m-2 the radiant cubicle increased its energy consumption for cooling more than the reference cubicle with air-to-air heat pumps. As a result, the radiant cubicle used around 20% more energy than the reference at air temperature set-point 24 ºC but saved around 20% compared to the reference at 26 ºC. Despite this, the radiant wall could still reduce the cooling cost through peak load shifting even though it showed to consume more energy than a conventional HP. The work was partially funded by the Spanish government (ENE2015-64117-C5-1-R (MINECO/FEDER), ENE2015-64117-C5-3-R (MINECO/FEDER), and ULLE10-4E-1305). GREA is certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2014 SGR 123) and the city hall of Puigverd de Lleida. This projects has received funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013) under Grant agreement Nº PIRSES-GA-2013-610692 (INNOSTORAGE) and from European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 657466 (INPATH-TES). Alvaro de Gracia would like to thank Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI-2014-19940.

Summarization: The aim of this paper is to develop and propose an integrated classification method for the determination of office buildings' energy and thermal comfort rating classes. The applications of five clustering techniques: Hierarchical, K-Means, Gaussian Mixture Models, Fuzzy, and Neural algorithms to a large building dataset are tested in order to investigate the appropriate method for establishing energy and thermal comfort classifications. For the clustering results testing, three internal validity indices: the Silhouette, the Davies Bouldin, and the Dunn Index have been applied, in order to select the appropriate number of clusters and the most efficient algorithm for each case. The proposed classification approach is also evaluated through comparisons with the methodologies that are recommended by the European standards. The classification results are used for a parametric study of common buildings' characteristics in each rating class, in order to provide with a tool for adopting improvement recommendations for buildings' energy efficiency. Presented on: IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid