Issue |
Sust. Build.
Volume 2, 2017
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 4 | |
Number of page(s) | 16 | |
Section | Passive and Active Hybrid Approach to Building Designs | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/sbuild/2017003 | |
Published online | 03 May 2017 |
Research Article
Numerical analysis of passive strategies for energy retrofit of existing buildings in Mediterranean climate: thermal mass and natural ventilation combination
1
National Research Council of Italy – CNR, Institute for Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage – ITABC,
Via Salaria km. 29.300,
00016
Monterotondo, Italy
2
Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture, Sapienza University of Rome,
Via Flaminia 72,
00196
Rome, Italy
⁎ e-mail: filippo.calcerano@itabc.cnr.it
Received:
4
January
2017
Accepted:
13
March
2017
The study investigates the potential of coupling natural ventilation and thermal storage systems to improve hygrothermal comfort and reduce energy consumption during summer season in an existing building in the Mediterranean. It aims at bridging the knowledge gap between designers, researchers and building scientists, fostering a multidisciplinary approach and promoting numerical simulation of the energy performance of buildings within architectural professional practice. The study analyses the interaction between six natural ventilation systems (single sided ventilation through facade openings; cross ventilation through facade openings, inlet wind tower, thermal chimney, evaporative cool tower, earth pipes) and with two thermal storage typology (heavy and medium-light) within four strategic Italian location (Rome, Naples, Messina and Catania). For each interaction we perform a numerical dynamic simulation of indoor comfort, indoor air quality and energy consumption during the summer period, on a reference building model corresponding to the most common Italian typology. Results show that the use of the chosen systems ensures significant reductions of discomfort hours and energy consumption in all configurations. The study also highlights the high efficiency of non invasive systems (single-sided and cross ventilation with automatic control present discomfort hours reduction and energy consumption reduction above 68% for all combinations) and the significant influence of the daily thermal range value on the performance of systems without air pre-treatment.
Key words: building performance simulation / building energy simulation / EnergyPlus™ / energy refurbishment / existing building stock / Mediterranean climate / cooling
© F. Calcerano et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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