Different strategies for improving summer thermal comfort in heavyweight traditional buildings

Evola, G., Marletta, L., Costanzo, V. and Caruso, G. (2015) Different strategies for improving summer thermal comfort in heavyweight traditional buildings. Energy Procedia, 78. pp. 3228-3233. ISSN 1876-6102 doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.11.785

Abstract/Summary

In order to exploit the passive energy potential of the building envelope, it is important to provide a right combination of insulation thickness, heat capacity and night-time ventilation. In this paper, this issue will be tackled with reference to an historic building in Catania (Southern Italy). The building was built at the end of the XIX century, and its opaque envelope is entirely made with lava stones, which is typical of traditional architecture in this area. Starting from the current configuration of the building, many hypotheses for refurbishment are considered, combined with different strategies for passive cooling, such as night-time ventilation, use of shading devices and adoption of highly-reflective coatings. The effectiveness of each solution in terms of summer thermal comfort is evaluated through dynamic thermal simulations carried out with EnergyPlus. The results show the synergic effect of these strategies, as well as their individual impact, and allow to draw some general conclusions about the behaviour of heavyweight buildings under moderately hot weather conditions.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/58776
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of the Built Environment
Publisher	Elsevier
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