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According to the European Energy Efficiency Directive for Buildings, member states are required to develop long-term strategies to adopt more sustainable, secure, and decarbonized energy systems in buildings by 2050. In this line of approach, an optional common regime has been established to define and calculate the smart readiness of buildings and assess their ability to adapt their operation to the needs of the occupants and the network. Thus, the smart readiness indicator (SRI) emerged, which assesses technological readiness by examining the presence and evaluation of the functionality level of various smart services, aiming at energy savings, the ability of the building to respond to users' needs, and energy flexibility. This paper focuses on examining the SRI calculation methodology's application to an office building, which is currently being deeply renovated. Initially, there is an analysis of the SRI, its calculation methodology, and its goals. This is followed by the practical calculation part of the SRI for a typical office building located in Greece and belonging to the climate zone of southern Europe. The results indicate that the SRIs application is not a straightforward issue since parameters that need to be considered are not regulated to the same degree. On the other hand, SRI can provide a stimulus for exploiting the renovation potential of buildings, precisely by integrating the various aspects and linking those to the use of innovative technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of rapid technological improvements, state-of-the-art methodologies and tools dedicated to protecting and promoting our cultural heritage should be developed and extensively employed in the contemporary built environment and lifestyle. At the same time, sustainability principles underline the importance of the continuous use of historic or vernacular buildings as part of the building stock of our society. Adopting a holistic, integrated, multi-disciplinary strategy can link technological innovation with the conservation and restoration of heritage buildings. This paper presents the ongoing research and results of the application of Machine Learning methods for the remote monitoring of the built environment of the historic cluster in Cypriot cities. This study is part of an integrated, multi-scale, and multi-disciplinary study of heritage buildings, with the end goal of creating an online HBIM platform for urban monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a novel controlled-temperature double-skin façade (DSF) building element. A three-dimensional time-dependent numerical model was developed for six different geometries for the investigation of thermal performance under different orientations (azimuth 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°). The boundary conditions of the numerical model were determined with the PVGIS tool and adjusted with the sol-air temperature equation. The results of the numerical simulation were validated with the use of measurements from an experimental test cell. The numerical results indicated an improved thermal performance when temperature-controlled air and flow were supplied through the building envelope with annual total energy savings in kWh/m2 of 1.99, 1.38, 2.13 and 2.06 for azimuth 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°, respectively. In regard to the total energy savings in %, the maximum benefit was considered to be in the winter season, with values of 65, 29, 80 and 28 for azimuth 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°, respectively. The experimental measurements revealed the test cell's ability to maintain a relatively constant internal surface temperature and to not be significantly affected by the orientation and diverse ambient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to define the features that smart buildings should fulfil in order to be compatible with the overall context of the smart city and to introduce a new evaluation framework of Smart Buildings Integration into a Smart City (SBISC). By analysing scientific literature as well as existing international and local project examples, the features of smart buildings that are expected to be adopted in smart cities were identified. The SBISC evaluation methodology was developed and applied to a set of selected projects. The literature review revealed that the smart building and smart city concepts were developed in different time frames and by different stakeholders and, thus, need to be realigned. The most important aspect is to employ in a smart building all the functionalities proposed by the smart areas of the city and vice versa by enabling the recommended features of smart materials, smart building services, and smart construction to serve for the surrounding systems. Nine office buildings representing smart building concept in different smart cities built within the period 2007–2018 with a total area from 10,000 m2 to 143,000 m2 were selected for the analysis. The research of selected projects revealed that the smart buildings have more potential to become smarter by utilizing smart cities capabilities in the areas of smart energy, smart mobility, smart life, and smart environment. Smart cities are the most prominent trend in creating a cohesive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports halls must meet strict requirements for energy and indoor air quality (IAQ); therefore, there is a great challenge in the design of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of such buildings. IAQ in sports halls may be affected by thermal stratification, pollutants from different sources, the maintenance of building, and the HVAC system of the building, as well as by the activities performed inside the building. The aim of this study is to investigate thermal stratification conditions in accordance with the performance of the HVAC systems in the basketball training hall of Žalgirio Arena, Kaunas in Lithuania. Field measurements including temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 concentration were implemented between January and February in 2017. The temperature and relative humidity were measured at different heights (0.1, 1.7, 2.5, 3.9, 5.4, and 6.9 m) and at five different locations in the arena. Experimental results show that mixing the ventilation application together with air heating results in higher temperatures in the occupied zone than in the case of air heating without ventilation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations revealed that using the same heating output as for warm air heating and underfloor heating, combined with mechanical mixing or displacement ventilation, ensures higher temperatures in the occupied zone, creating a potential for energy saving. An increase of air temperature was noticed from 3.9 m upwards. Since CO2 concentration near the ceiling was permissible, the study concluded that it is possible to recycle the air from the mentioned zone and use it again by mixing with the air of lower layers, thus saving energy for air heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]