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The global energy crisis has spurred increased investments in energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives; however, the results have fallen short of expected effectiveness. Concurrently, population growth and urbanisation drive a persistent surge in energy demands, especially within the residential sector, significant to overall building energy consumption. Current research focuses on residents' responses to one-shot investments for energy efficiency or clean sources. The renovation wave, involving a massive number of existing buildings, calls for the mobilisation of huge investments that can be hard to afford in the short run. Sustainable behavioural change is complementarily rising as a key asset for maximising the overall estimated energy saving potential. Despite significant efforts to analyse household energy use and promote behavioural transformations, the literature remains gaping about future users, particularly the younger generation, as future leaders of sustainable development who exhibit a more responsible approach towards climate-related issues but also a strong dependency on digital-based solutions, which may influence energy use patterns and living habits, also impacting relations among peers and overall societal sustainability and energy efficiency. This article proposes a systematic literature review to analyse the variables affecting young people's energy behaviour at home. The aim is to investigate the engines and gaps between strategies or tools for behaviour change and the expected effects, then find potential methods to address that barrier to identify a more promising approach, encouraging the younger generation to translate towards more sustainable energy behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty is a significant social, economic, and health issue which increasingly affects millions of households worldwide. Both climate change and the socio-economic crisis have aggravated this phenomenon, making families unable to keep adequate comfort conditions at home because of economic constraints and/or dwelling inefficiencies. Considering the recent inflation trends, as well as the global effort to reduce the building sector's carbon emissions, energy retrofitting of buildings emerges as the most forward-looking strategy to cope with energy poverty risk. In the case of large building stocks, which are typical for social housing complexes across the EU, deep and fast energy retrofitting might prove challenging, especially considering the resource shortages and disruptions to occupants that may arise. Therefore, this article investigates the relationship between the envelope's insulation ratio and the risk of energy poverty for households. To this end, diverse scenarios are defined, corresponding to progressive increases in the percentage of building envelope that is insulated. The resulting energy needs are calculated for each of them and correlated with local average incomes and relative energy expenses of households. This is tested on an Italian social housing demo case. The results confirm a predictable but not linear correlation between thermal insulation and reduced energy needs for heating, and an interesting side effect on cooling needs for scenarios that perform better in winter. As for income, energy cost has a greater effect on the energy poverty risk when monthly rent is lower, while energy prices have a major role when rent per month is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent literature emphasizes the significance of occupants' behavior in shaping home energy demand. Several policies have been defined and tools and technologies have been developed to raise people's awareness and encourage energy-saving practices at home, but households' energy demand keeps rising. The thesis is that the fundamentals on this topic are still unclear and that available tools, strategies and measures should be approached in a more integrated way, as they are not now effective enough to encourage energy savings. How these could be successfully combined is still a major knowledge gap. Thus, this article proposes a critical review of the literature to discuss the potential role of end users in energy conservation at home, preparing the ground for truly effective engagement strategies and tools to encourage behavioral change. To that end, a systematic literature review is performed, including over 130 relevant articles. According to the critical interpretation of their content, after years of technologically driven strategies, the most promising approaches capable of overcoming the intention–action gap are those more user-centered. However, relying solely on the social aspect is not effective. Synergistic integration of the two main clusters of studies has been identified as a promising field of research for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive façades represent a viable and effective technological solution to reduce the building energy demand for cooling while achieving interesting aesthetic effects on the building envelope to screen solar radiation. During the last decade, many different design solutions, including those based on shape memory alloys, have been experimented to obtain appropriate responses without being dependent on electro-mechanically actuated systems. Several recent and ongoing studies have been published in the scientific literature regarding the different actuator typologies, as well as the different properties of the materials used, which usually determine the adaptive solution characteristics after a series of complex and time-consuming simulations using specialised dynamic modelling software. Due to the time and resources required, this kind of evaluation is usually delivered during the last and more advanced design stage as a form of assessment of already-taken architectural and technological choices. The study reported in the paper aims to offer a quick, time-saving simplified algorithm to calculate the response of an adaptive façade, according to the ISO 13790 standards, to be adopted during the early design stage to evaluate the possible effects of design decisions. The study includes three main steps: (a) the conceptualisation of the adaptive solution considering the context conditions; (b) the definition of the calculation algorithm; (c) the application of the method to a test room in a case study building located in Bologna for supporting the discussion of the related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huge efforts have been made in recent decades to improve energy saving in the building sector, particularly focused on the role of façades. Among the explored viable solutions, climate-adaptive building shells [CABS] consider promising solutions to control solar radiation, both in terms of illuminance and heating levels, but are still piloting these solutions due to their complex designs and necessary costs. The present study aims to provide a speedy but reliable methodology to evaluate the potential impacts of adopting active/passive CABS systems during the preliminary design stage. The proposed methodology allows the evaluation and comparison, when multiple options are considered, of the effects of each solution in terms of the energy needs, thermal comfort and lighting, while reducing the required effort and time for an extensive analysis of the overall building level. This is based on the use of a "virtual test room" where different conditions and configurations can be explored. A case study in the city of Bologna is included for demonstration purposes. The achieved results support the decisions made regarding energy behavior (over/under heating), indoor comfort, lighting and energy at an early design stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]