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Climate Change and Building Renovation: Effects on Energy Consumption and Internal Comfort in a Social Housing Building in Northern Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Manzan Marco

    (Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy)

  • Atlas Ramezani

    (Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy)

  • Alex Buoite Stella

    (Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, 34149 Trieste, Italy)

  • Amedeo Pezzi

    (Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy)

Abstract

Climate change is becoming a crucial factor to consider within human activities and the building sector is particularly influenced by aspects of internal comfort and energy. In Italy, great attention has been paid to the energy refurbishment of buildings. However, such interventions are mostly focused on reducing heating energy consumption, thus neglecting summer season performance. Moreover, climate change is barely considered during the design phase. This issue is addressed in this work which analyzes some of the most common refurbishment interventions applied to a social housing building in Trieste, while also considering internal comfort during the summer season. A dynamic analysis of the building-plant system is carried out using EnergyPlus. Fanger, UTCI and the adaptive comfort models were used to represent internal health, while three TRY data sets were generated using two GCM–RCM projections to evaluate the influence of climate change. The results show that both building insulation and climatic change affect heating consumption reaching a 70% reduction. However, building insulation does not greatly affect internal comfort, although different models show different behavior to protect against external temperatures. On the contrary, climatic change influences the percentage of hours of discomfort, with a 20% increase for all of the models. The final consideration is that people’s internal health should always be considered when carrying out refurbishment activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Manzan Marco & Atlas Ramezani & Alex Buoite Stella & Amedeo Pezzi, 2023. "Climate Change and Building Renovation: Effects on Energy Consumption and Internal Comfort in a Social Housing Building in Northern Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:7:p:5931-:d:1110635
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rosa Francesca De Masi & Valentino Festa & Antonio Gigante & Margherita Mastellone & Silvia Ruggiero & Giuseppe Peter Vanoli, 2021. "Effect of Climate Changes on Renewable Production in the Mediterranean Climate: Case Study of the Energy Retrofit for a Detached House," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-28, August.
    2. Marco Manzan & Giorgio Lupato & Amedeo Pezzi & Paolo Rosato & Alberto Clarich, 2020. "Reliability-Based Optimization for Energy Refurbishment of a Social Housing Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Fabio Fantozzi & Caterina Gargari & Massimo Rovai & Giacomo Salvadori, 2019. "Energy Upgrading of Residential Building Stock: Use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis to Assess Interventions on Social Housing in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-13, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Walery Jezierski & Dorota Anna Krawczyk & Beata Sadowska, 2023. "The Impact of Climate Change and Window Parameters on Energy Demand and CO 2 Emissions in a Building with Various Heat Sources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-21, July.

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