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In this paper a careful energy audit and an energy restoration of some historical buildings was performed. In particular, three cultural heritages buildings situated in the city of Matera in Southern Italy were analysed. To analyse these buildings, an integrated approach based on measurements in situ and on dynamic energy simulations was used. Then, some energy efficiency actions were performed, safeguarding the authenticity value of these structures. The thermal conductance, the indoor temperature and the energy consumption were measured in situ and then the numerical virtual model was created by the Energy Plus code (Energy Plus is free, open-source, and cross-platform developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's and Building Technologies Office) (U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO), Washington, DC, USA). The numerical model was validated by using the Inequality Coefficient (IC) and then different parametric energy analyses were performed. The paper analysed different energy improvements and a techno-economic feasibility study was performed for each improvement. This analysis was conducted in dynamic regime by using the Energy-Plus code. In these buildings the thermal system improvements have a better payback time than envelope improvements. Two different thermal system improvements were analysed: the absorption heat pump with thermostatic valves and the compression heat pump with fan coil unit. Moreover, the replacement of present lighting with LED technologies has a payback time near one year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption of the public building stock represents an important cost of the balance of a state. Moreover, public buildings, in particular schools, should be buildings with elevated comfort levels because student and teachers spend much time in these rooms. The wellness and productive capacity of students and teachers are primarily affected by the comfort inside and air quality of school rooms. Regarding energy use, school buildings waste much energy because most buildings were constructed before the 1991 and energy saving measures were only implemented in a few schools. This paper analyses the energy performance of eight different schools located in Matera city, southern Italy. The aim of this research is to analyse energy requirement utilizing dynamic analyses with a time step of one hour (using Energy-Plus method). Next, the values of the dynamic analyses were compared to the effective energy consumption. Using the results of this comparison, we validated the numerical model, and then, we analysed different energy auditing actions for these buildings. We included the energy auditing works in three categories: energy restoration of the envelope, of the plant and of both. For each of these categories, we calculated the energy savings. Ultimately, we analysed the environmental benefits of the three different categories in terms of CO 2 reduction. This research confirmed that the dynamic method is the best method to achieve a good energy analysis of these complex buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]