The use of reflective insulation materials in buildings, for energy saving in summer, has been sp... more The use of reflective insulation materials in buildings, for energy saving in summer, has been spreading in southern Europe. These products are not typical of the local building context. There is a lack of well-established measurement systems for reflective insulation thermal transmittance. The aim of this article is to understand whether a reflective insulation material could be effective in hot and temperate climate, also compared with other roof solutions. For this purpose, we compared the thermal performance of a roof with and without reflective insulation, both installed in a full-scale experimental building near Ancona (Italy) in the summer period. The results showed that the reflective insulation benefits are quite limited when using the insulation level imposed by actual laws, which consider insulation as the main strategy for energy saving in temperate and hot climates.
Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications, 2016
Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in the field of building renovation is considered an important dec... more Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in the field of building renovation is considered an important decision support of the design process in order to compare the effectiveness of different energy efficiency measures (EEMs). The importance of using LCC analysis in the field of buildings and building renovation has been introduced at regulatory level in different countries. LCC methodologies related to energy efficiency measures have been introduced in Europe by Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings [1]. The Directive established that Member States shall calculate “cost-optimal levels” of minimum energy performance requirements using a comparative methodology framework according to the consequent Commission Delegated Regulation and its Guidelines [2,3] based on EN 15459:2007 [4].
An LCA study (based on ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and EN 15804 + A2 standards) was performed to evalua... more An LCA study (based on ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and EN 15804 + A2 standards) was performed to evaluate the environmental impacts of two mortars incorporating recycled materials (composite and carbon dust) from industrial waste as fine aggregates. They were compared to “reference” mortars, with the same strength performance, entirely composed of raw natural materials. The aim was to advance knowledge on the performance of mortars with composite materials, especially deepening the impact of the phase of materials’ transport on life-cycle behavior. In this regard, the work was conducted in three phases. Firstly, the LCA was performed in a specific “local” production scenario. Then, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the influence of the uncertainty of input data on the variance of LCA outcomes. Considering the high sensitivity of results to transport distances, the LCA was finally extended considering several scenarios with increasing distances of aggregates’ transport. The ...
Sustainable Building for a Cleaner Environment, 2018
Exterior walls play a significant role in buildings thermal behaviour, and utilization of proper ... more Exterior walls play a significant role in buildings thermal behaviour, and utilization of proper insulation materials with high thermal performance and low adverse environmental impacts is of great importance. The main aim of this study is to assess thermal and environmental benefits and drawbacks of honeycomb cardboard application in external wall configuration of prefabricated buildings. Its thermal conductivity was measured by guarded hot plate method, and its steady-state as well as periodic thermal transmittances were obtained. Furthermore, main construction junctions were simulated, and their linear thermal transmittance was studied. Secondly, with a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, the adverse impacts of cardboard on environment in production phase and within a limited impact category set were studied. Additionally, the same procedures of thermal and environmental assessments were performed on a number of functionally equivalent insulation materials to be compared with cardboard. The results demonstrate an overall image of positive and negative consequences of cardboard application as insulation for wall envelopes.
Abstract Policies and financial framework aiming to encourage energy efficient building renovatio... more Abstract Policies and financial framework aiming to encourage energy efficient building renovations should contribute to “fill” the existing investment gap between Cost-Optimal (CO) solutions, that are more economically convenient, and nearly Zero Energy (nZE) solutions, which have the lower energy consumption, in order to make more convenient to the investors to choose the more energy efficient options. This investment gap depends on the long-term expected value and volatility of several interdependent macroeconomic variables. However, standardized LCC methods used for CO assessments disregard the long-term uncertainty and interdependence affecting these variables and, consequently, misrepresent the impact of the associated risk on the economic convenience. The present work aims to model alternative macro-economic scenarios where to carry out a “stochastic” LCC of predetermined building renovation solutions, in order to provide a useful and effective decision tool for building LCC, and especially to evaluate whether and how much the future macro-economic scenario could influence the investment gap between a CO and a nZE refurbishment solution. At this aim, we estimated the Vector AutoRegressive (VAR) models of four alternative macro-economic scenarios, ranging from a “regular growth” case to more extreme conditions as experienced by major western economies in the last decades, based on real data, i.e. observed time series. The scenarios modelling and its relation to the stochastic LCC is the main result and novelty of the work compared to the conventional approach adopted in most of the literature and suggested by international regulations and standards. The method is illustrated through a case study, which demonstrates the potential of the developed methodology in providing interesting and informative results on the nature of the investment gap between CO and nZE solutions, that the policy should contribute to fill in order to address the environmental challenge in the building sector, and on how much this gap may vary depending on the volatility of the macro-economic context. The novelty of the work mainly lies on the possibility to highlight in which specific macroeconomic conditions the convenience of taking an investment decision under risk-aversion may be jeopardised (augmented), thus requiring a stronger (weaker) compensating public support.
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019
The EU Directive 2010/31 abstained from prescribing harmonized and strict requirements for nearly... more The EU Directive 2010/31 abstained from prescribing harmonized and strict requirements for nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs), to provide EU countries flexibility and room for maneuver in setting national targets, in view of the impact of local climatic conditions and specific territorial and socio-economical features on heating and cooling needs. Benchmarks are usually provided in terms of primary energy needs, however the definition of accurate calculation methodologies, notably as regards the cooling share, is a rather challenging task. Nonetheless, its accomplishment is cardinal to countries, like Mediterranean ones, were the building performance is mostly dictated by summertime sensitivities. This paper presents a cutting-edge approach to nZEB performance analysis: the monthly quasi steady-state (EN 13790 as implemented in Italian UNI/TS 11300) and hourly dynamic calculation methods (developed under the standard UNI EN ISO 52016-1:2018) are compared, with due attention to the...
The use of reflective insulation materials in buildings, for energy saving in summer, has been sp... more The use of reflective insulation materials in buildings, for energy saving in summer, has been spreading in southern Europe. These products are not typical of the local building context. There is a lack of well-established measurement systems for reflective insulation thermal transmittance. The aim of this article is to understand whether a reflective insulation material could be effective in hot and temperate climate, also compared with other roof solutions. For this purpose, we compared the thermal performance of a roof with and without reflective insulation, both installed in a full-scale experimental building near Ancona (Italy) in the summer period. The results showed that the reflective insulation benefits are quite limited when using the insulation level imposed by actual laws, which consider insulation as the main strategy for energy saving in temperate and hot climates.
Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications, 2016
Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in the field of building renovation is considered an important dec... more Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis in the field of building renovation is considered an important decision support of the design process in order to compare the effectiveness of different energy efficiency measures (EEMs). The importance of using LCC analysis in the field of buildings and building renovation has been introduced at regulatory level in different countries. LCC methodologies related to energy efficiency measures have been introduced in Europe by Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings [1]. The Directive established that Member States shall calculate “cost-optimal levels” of minimum energy performance requirements using a comparative methodology framework according to the consequent Commission Delegated Regulation and its Guidelines [2,3] based on EN 15459:2007 [4].
An LCA study (based on ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and EN 15804 + A2 standards) was performed to evalua... more An LCA study (based on ISO 14040, ISO 14044, and EN 15804 + A2 standards) was performed to evaluate the environmental impacts of two mortars incorporating recycled materials (composite and carbon dust) from industrial waste as fine aggregates. They were compared to “reference” mortars, with the same strength performance, entirely composed of raw natural materials. The aim was to advance knowledge on the performance of mortars with composite materials, especially deepening the impact of the phase of materials’ transport on life-cycle behavior. In this regard, the work was conducted in three phases. Firstly, the LCA was performed in a specific “local” production scenario. Then, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the influence of the uncertainty of input data on the variance of LCA outcomes. Considering the high sensitivity of results to transport distances, the LCA was finally extended considering several scenarios with increasing distances of aggregates’ transport. The ...
Sustainable Building for a Cleaner Environment, 2018
Exterior walls play a significant role in buildings thermal behaviour, and utilization of proper ... more Exterior walls play a significant role in buildings thermal behaviour, and utilization of proper insulation materials with high thermal performance and low adverse environmental impacts is of great importance. The main aim of this study is to assess thermal and environmental benefits and drawbacks of honeycomb cardboard application in external wall configuration of prefabricated buildings. Its thermal conductivity was measured by guarded hot plate method, and its steady-state as well as periodic thermal transmittances were obtained. Furthermore, main construction junctions were simulated, and their linear thermal transmittance was studied. Secondly, with a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, the adverse impacts of cardboard on environment in production phase and within a limited impact category set were studied. Additionally, the same procedures of thermal and environmental assessments were performed on a number of functionally equivalent insulation materials to be compared with cardboard. The results demonstrate an overall image of positive and negative consequences of cardboard application as insulation for wall envelopes.
Abstract Policies and financial framework aiming to encourage energy efficient building renovatio... more Abstract Policies and financial framework aiming to encourage energy efficient building renovations should contribute to “fill” the existing investment gap between Cost-Optimal (CO) solutions, that are more economically convenient, and nearly Zero Energy (nZE) solutions, which have the lower energy consumption, in order to make more convenient to the investors to choose the more energy efficient options. This investment gap depends on the long-term expected value and volatility of several interdependent macroeconomic variables. However, standardized LCC methods used for CO assessments disregard the long-term uncertainty and interdependence affecting these variables and, consequently, misrepresent the impact of the associated risk on the economic convenience. The present work aims to model alternative macro-economic scenarios where to carry out a “stochastic” LCC of predetermined building renovation solutions, in order to provide a useful and effective decision tool for building LCC, and especially to evaluate whether and how much the future macro-economic scenario could influence the investment gap between a CO and a nZE refurbishment solution. At this aim, we estimated the Vector AutoRegressive (VAR) models of four alternative macro-economic scenarios, ranging from a “regular growth” case to more extreme conditions as experienced by major western economies in the last decades, based on real data, i.e. observed time series. The scenarios modelling and its relation to the stochastic LCC is the main result and novelty of the work compared to the conventional approach adopted in most of the literature and suggested by international regulations and standards. The method is illustrated through a case study, which demonstrates the potential of the developed methodology in providing interesting and informative results on the nature of the investment gap between CO and nZE solutions, that the policy should contribute to fill in order to address the environmental challenge in the building sector, and on how much this gap may vary depending on the volatility of the macro-economic context. The novelty of the work mainly lies on the possibility to highlight in which specific macroeconomic conditions the convenience of taking an investment decision under risk-aversion may be jeopardised (augmented), thus requiring a stronger (weaker) compensating public support.
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019
The EU Directive 2010/31 abstained from prescribing harmonized and strict requirements for nearly... more The EU Directive 2010/31 abstained from prescribing harmonized and strict requirements for nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs), to provide EU countries flexibility and room for maneuver in setting national targets, in view of the impact of local climatic conditions and specific territorial and socio-economical features on heating and cooling needs. Benchmarks are usually provided in terms of primary energy needs, however the definition of accurate calculation methodologies, notably as regards the cooling share, is a rather challenging task. Nonetheless, its accomplishment is cardinal to countries, like Mediterranean ones, were the building performance is mostly dictated by summertime sensitivities. This paper presents a cutting-edge approach to nZEB performance analysis: the monthly quasi steady-state (EN 13790 as implemented in Italian UNI/TS 11300) and hourly dynamic calculation methods (developed under the standard UNI EN ISO 52016-1:2018) are compared, with due attention to the...
Uploads