S-MUnSTa: A Smart Ventilated Insulation System Based on IoT Protocol Stack

Buildings energy efficiency plays a key role in terms of reducing energy consumption and improving the internal comfort. For this purpose, European standards regulate the use of different insulation systems, applied to the internal or external building envelope. However, different studies demonstrate that considerable thicknesses of insulation layers are inappropriate in our Mediterranean climates. This paper presents an innovative dynamic ventilated insulation system able to overcome condensation and overheating phenomena, also exploiting Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. This system, called S-MUnSTa, is a ventilated external layer equipped with valves of insulating material, for opening (in summer) and closing (in winter) the air channel, with the aim to optimize the thermal performance. Moreover, in order to control and manage the valves, a wireless controller system based on IoT technologies has been adopted. The proposed solution, exploiting a photovoltaic system as power source, has been also compared with a wired one alternative. The combination of building and IoT technologies develops an innovative system with several advantages, such as: the improvement of internal comfort and energy saving during the whole year controlled with a wireless system, the ease of installation and the versatile use in walls and roofs in every building typology.