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The purpose of this study was to assess an energy retrofit of a building representative of those in public tertiary stock, to improve energy performance toward nearly Zero-Energy Building (nZEB) requirements. The building is located in the campus of the Politecnico di Milano University (Italy). Several hypothetical improvements regarding the building envelope and plants were assessed in terms of energy savings, costs, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The results of the study show that it is possible to reduce primary energy demand and associated emissions up to 40% from the current values by adopting market-available and well-proven technological solutions for retrofit. Moreover, exploiting on-site renewable energy sources, the net energy consumption can be near zero. However, an economic analysis of the application of these technologies has highlighted many critical elements related to the implementation of some solutions. This is particularly true for actions related to the thermal insulation of the building envelope and to the installation of ventilation system with heat recovery. Since nZEB requirements are related to the concept of economic performance, this paper gives useful hints to better understand the viability of many commonly adopted actions and strategies for reaching such targets in building retrofit cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to directive 2010/31/EU, a NZEB (nearly zero energy building) is defined as a high performance building whose very low or almost zero energy needs should be mostly provided by renewable sources. The study reported in this work has the objective to establish criteria and design solutions to improve buildings energy performances in order to reach NZEB targets for those buildings characterized by historical constraints. For this purpose, a comparative numerical analysis on the space cooling and heating of a historical building sited in Agrigento (Sicily, Italy) was performed by means of two energy tools: Termo and Trnsys. The first one is a stationary energy certification software based on the algorithms and mathematical methods listed in the UNI TS 11300 standard reference. The second one is a well calibrated dynamic tool based on hourly climate data and able to take into account the thermal inertia phenomena of structures. In order to obtain reliable results, measured climate data extracted from a weather station located near the reference building were used as input for the simulations. Starting from the simulation results, several retrofit scenarios were hypothesized, in order to achieve NZEB target, and then followed by a cost analysis carried out to reach optimal economic solutions and energy savings. The study can constitute a contribution to policy formulation and adoption of measures to facilitate design choices for the energy improving of historical buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research project was undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C). The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity; to explore how and why occupants decide to change building components and to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient materials. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. This research paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 16 housing estates in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research project was undertaken in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (T.R.N.C). The objective of the research is to investigate the occupants’ behaviour and role in the refurbishment activity; to explore how and why occupants decide to change building components and to understand why and how occupants consider using energy-efficient materials. The study is conducted through semi-structured interviews to identify occupants’ behaviour as it is associated with refurbishment activity. This research paper presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 70 homeowners in a selected group of 16 housing estates in four different regions of the T.R.N.C. The expected solutions should be effective, environmentally acceptable and feasible given the type of housing projects under review, with due regard for their location, the climatic conditions within which they were undertaken, the socio-economic standing of the house owners and their attitudes, local resources and legislative constraints. Furthermore, the study goes on to insist on the practical and long-term economic benefits of refurbishment under the proper conditions and why this should be fully understood by the householders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]