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As buildings are one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, they have a key potential for energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality improvement. Therefore, the development of nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs) is strategic to respond to these challenges and to design and retrofit sustainable highly performing buildings. Actually, the nZEB target can also be reached with highly insulated wooden technologies. However, they must be critically revised and adapted when taking into account the warm climate peculiarities. The paper contributes to this attempt by dealing with the implementation of a methodology specifically focused on the long-term assessment of the real building envelope performance. The methodology is applied to a recently built wooden nZEB detached single-story dwelling constructed in 2017 in central Italy. One year monitoring data were collected about the envelope in-field dynamic performance and the indoor microclimate and well-being conditions. The theoretical design-stage data and the monitored data were compared. The positive aspects as well as the critical issues of nZEB target in the Mediterranean climate context and the performance gap were underlined. Accordingly, the main aspects to be considered in the design of nZEBs envelope were highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The results of this paper can support the design of nearly zero-energy single-family houses in the Italian context. The provided methodological framework can support the design of nearly zero-energy buildings and be replicated in different contexts. The effective design of nearly zero-energy buildings depends on a large set of interdependent variables, which affect both energy demand and supply. Considering them simultaneously is fundamental when searching for optimal design of nearly zero-energy buildings, as encouraged by the EU in the second recast of the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD). This paper presents the application of the new energy demand and supply simultaneous optimization (EDeSSOpt) methodology to optimize the design of a single-family house in the Italian context. Both primary energy optimization and financial optimization are carried out in the context of European regulations. Robustness of the resulting optimal solution is studied through analysis of optimum neighborhoods. The resulting cost-optimized solution relies on a moderately insulated envelope, a highly efficient system, and 34% of coverage from renewables. The energy-optimized solution requires a higher level of insulation and a higher coverage from renewables, demonstrating that there is still a gap between energy and cost optimums. Beyond the results, integrated optimization by means of EDeSSOpt is demonstrated to better minimize cost functions while improving the robustness of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Forecast procedures for building energy renovation and design. In recent years, the need to make the built environment more resilient and adaptable to climate change has become essential. In Europe, this aspect concerns most existing buildings with several deficiencies from the energy efficiency point of view, considering they were designed before the introduction of modern codes. Among the various strategies for building energy retrofitting, Double-Skin Façades (DSFs) have gained attention due to their potential to improve the building performance and inhabitants' comfort. This research aims to evaluate the use of adequately designed DSFs for the energy restoration of buildings. In detail, various DSF configurations are applied to a residential building located in Central Italy and investigated under present and future climate conditions, estimated through regional climate models. The installation of multi-layered façades, particularly the Multi-Storey typology, greatly reduces energy consumption and increases the expected comfort rates. When the selected configuration was considered, the results underline a decrease in the annual building energy requirement of about 37–56% up to 42–59%, respectively, for 2030 and 2070. Moreover, using multi-layer façades can increase indoor minimum operative temperatures up to 3.8% during the coldest months and reduce the maximum summer ones by 1.9–3.8%, raising comfort levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2030 zero-net emission target in the E.U. demands a significant improvement in the energy performance of the building stock. This study analyses the adoption of connected thermostats and Home energy-management system solutions (HEMS) as an effective means to tackle the residential energy footprint. It reviews the main features of HEMS systems in terms of technology, cross-study performances, and the obstacles to widespread adoption; the study adopts the case-study methodology to examine the impact on the Italian real estate stock at a regional level. A matrix of adoption scenarios assesses the potential benefits of global residential energy savings, weighted by local climatic variations, dimension, number of single dwellings, and average primary energy reduction per household. Results demonstrate that all adoption scenarios dramatically reduce residential energy consumption, outperforming the E.U. targets for Italy by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage buildings and the precious artworks contained therein, represent inestimable cultural and artistic evidence from the past that must be properly preserved for future generations. In the last decades, climate change has gained relevance and is becoming crucial to assess the building performance under such effect to provide timely mitigation actions to preserve our cultural heritage. In this regard, this paper outlines a method that combines different experimental activities and tools to forecast possible future risks due to climate change for the conservation of the artworks and provide its application in a relevant case study in Italy, the Duomo di Milano. In detail, the suggested method consists of the monitoring of the building indoor climate to validate a simulation model, defining possible future scenarios based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections, and evaluation of the future conservation risks of the main artworks. The results of the analysis carried out, show that for some artworks (e.g., stone sculptures, some organic materials, etc.), the conservation conditions will not worsen compared to the current situation, while for others (e.g., paintings, wooden objects, etc.) the risk of deterioration is expected to increase substantially. This study helps to understand how the future climate can affect the indoor environment of a huge masonry building and allow to plan targeted mitigation strategies aimed to reduce the future risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy performance of buildings is a worldwide increasing investigated field, due to ever more stringent energy standards aimed at reducing the buildings' impact on the environment. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact that occupant behavior and climate change have on the heating and cooling needs of residential buildings. With this aim, data of a questionnaire survey delivered in Southern Italy were used to obtain daily use profiles of natural ventilation, heating, and cooling, both in winter and in summer. Three climatic scenarios were investigated: The current scenario (2020), and two future scenarios (2050 and 2080). The CCWorldWeatherGen tool was used to create the weather files of future climate scenarios, and DesignBuilder was applied to conduct dynamic energy simulations. Firstly, the results obtained for 2020 demonstrated how the occupants' preferences related to the use of natural ventilation, heating, and cooling systems (daily schedules and temperature setpoints) impact on energy needs. Heating energy needs appeared more affected by the heating schedules, while cooling energy needs were mostly influenced by both natural ventilation and usage schedules. Secondly, due to the temperature rise, substantial decrements of the energy needs for heating and increments of cooling energy needs were observed in all the future scenarios where in addition, the impact of occupant behavior appeared amplified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last release of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2018/844/EU stated that smart buildings will play a crucial role in the future energy systems. Consequently, the Directive introduced the Smart Readiness Indicator in order to provide a common framework to highlight the value of building smartness across Europe. The methodology for the calculation of the Smart Readiness Indicator is currently under development and therefore not yet officially adopted at the European Union level. In this context, the current research analyzed the second public release of the proposed methodology, discussing the feasibility of its implementation and the obtained results through a practical application. Specifically, the methodology was applied to a nearly zero-energy office building located in Italy, and the evaluation was carried out in parallel by two different expert groups composed by researchers and technical building systems specialists. With the aim of analyzing the impact of subjective evaluations on the calculated indicator, a two-step assessment was adopted: in a first phase the two groups worked separately, and only in a second phase they were allowed to compare results, discuss discrepancies and identify the difficulties in applying the methodology. As the main outcome of this research, a set of recommendations are presented for an effective broad implementation of the Smart Readiness Indicator, able to increase the relevance of its evaluation and effectiveness, as well as to enhance the comparability of smart readiness of buildings through the definition of benchmarks and to integrate with other measurable key indicators, especially concerning energy flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian building stock consists of buildings mainly constructed until the mid-20th century using pre-industrial construction techniques. These buildings require energy refurbishment that takes into account the preservation of their architectural heritage. In this view, this work studies an innovative integrated modelling and simulation framework consisting of the implementation of Historical Building Information Modeling (HBIM) for the energy retrofit of historical buildings with renewable geothermal HVAC system. To this aim, the field case study is part of a medieval complex in Central Italy (Perugia), as representative ancient rural offshore architecture in the European countryside. The system involves of a ground source heat pump, a water tank for thermal-energy storage connected to a low-temperature radiant system, and an air-handling unit. The building heating energy performance, typically influenced by thermal inertia in historical buildings, when coupled to the novel HVAC system, is comparatively assessed against a traditional scenario implementing a natural-gas boiler, and made inter-operative within the HBIM ad hoc platform. Results show that the innovative renewable energy system provides relevant benefits while preserving minor visual and architectural impact within the historical complex, and also in terms of both energy saving, CO2 emissions offset, and operation costs compared to the traditional existing system. The integrated HBIM approach may effectively drive the path toward regeneration and re-functioning of heritage in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]