Search results for "Building"

Economic impact of BACS and TBM systems on residential buildings

2013

The paper presents the results of a study on the economic impact of building automation control systems and technical building management systems on residential buildings. The different functions considered by European Standard EN 15232 and having impact on the energy performance of buildings are applied to a test house, varying its energy efficiency class. The economic impact due to the introduction of each BACS or TBM function is evaluated using the BAC factors method, considering the real costs for the purchase and the installation of the components that implement the specific functions and the yearly energy costs of the building before and after their installation.

Demand side management and Distributed on Site actions benefits

2013

Global warming and energy demand are nowadays becoming one of the major issues of the third millennium, mainly because human activities seem to have a clear impact on the raise of CO2 emissions as never it has been experienced in the past. Among the different factors affecting CO2 emissions, energy demand from buildings constitutes one of the most important actors. Energy Management (EM) actions can reduce the energy consumption of the system and minimize peaks-level, by using a distributed control over every house. These local actions can greatly contribute to reduce the impact on the global CO2 emissions. An evaluation of the potential energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction on building…

ANALYSIS OF IMPACTS ON ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEM OPERATION OF LOAD MANAGEMENT IN RESIDENTIAL AND TERTIARY BUILDINGS

2012

Load management includes all the techniques, logics, actions and programs through which the electric utilities and the customers are able to manage loads absorption in a more prudent and efficient way; it determines economic benefits for the users, but also allows a network management and operation simpler and cheaper, determining technical and economic benefits. The present paper constitutes a detailed study of interventions and techniques to control demand in the residential and tertiary sectors and the effects that these actions have on the entire electrical system and its management. It discusses the implications of such control actions in terms of reduction of network losses and relate…

Ultrasonic nondestructive testing of building materials for the diagnosis and characterization of the decay due to salts crystallization

2020

The possibility to use ultrasonic nondestructive testing for the diagnosis and characterization of decay in building materials due to salts crystallization is here investigated. Salts crystallization is one of the main sources of decay for stone materials, especially for cultural heritage items underwater or exposed to water, and its early detection as well as a continuous monitoring is highly desirable. Currently, this often requires the use of destructive methods and the sampling of the items under inspection. This work shows promises to the successful use for this purpose of ultrasonic nondestructive testing.

Simulation and visualization of thermal metaphors in a virtual environment for thermal building assessment

2014

International audience; The current application of the design process through energy efficiency in virtual reality (VR) systems is limited mostly to building performance predictions and design review, as the issue of the data formats and the workflow used for 3D modeling, thermal calculation and VR visualization. The importance of energy efficiency and integration of advances in building design and VR technology have lead this research to focus on thermal simulation results visualized in a virtual environment to optimize building design, particularly concerning heritage buildings. The emphasis is on the perception of thermal data of a room simulated in a virtual environment (VE) in order to…

REHABILITATION, ENHANCEMENT AND PROMOTION OF ART NOUVEAU BUILDINGS

2016

Since ancient times every era has produced a particular architectural heritage with different materials and with the use of different construction. This study aims to make a contribution in terms of knowledge and the architectural heritage of the 20th century, recovery, and in particular those representing the Sicilian architecture known as Liberty architecture. The study explores the relationship between architecture, materials, construction techniques and the building restoration and enhancement problems. The main purpose of this research is on the one hand the analysis and technological knowledge of the architectural heritage and the other to study the types of …

Designing a sustainable regeneration in the outskirt of Agrigento

2016

This paper describes a case of building recovery and sustainable re-use in Sicily, that is the recovery of Villaseta. It is a very degraded neighborhood in the outskirts of Agrigento. The main goal of the redevelopment project is therefore the rebuilding and the environmental regeneration of the neighborhood, using sustainable technologies and tools, with the construction of vegetable gardens and urban gardens, the production of renewable energy and the sustainable recovery of existing buildings. The eco-friendliness of the restoration project is therefore given by the use of garden roofs and vertical gardens. Villaseta will be a real "green lung" able to give greater environmental awarenes…

Benefits of a translucent building envelope made of DSC-integrated glass blocks

2015

The aim of this paper is to analyse the benefits deriving from the replacement of the glazed façades of an office building located in Palermo (Sicily) with a new translucent BIPV envelope made of multifunctional glass block panels integrated with Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSCs). The analysed 11-storey building is cladded by a curtain wall determining high management costs, especially during summer, in order to maintain indoor comfort. After the design of the building envelope and of the components for the connection of the glass block panels with existing load bearing structure, the energy performance of the building, before and after the replacement of its envelope, were analysed with th…

Towards sustainable Net Zero Energy Buildings: life cycle energy performances and environmental impacts of a prefabricated building module

The impact of prefabrication in the building sector is currently undergoing significant growth. Although prefabricated buildings cannot in any situation replace conventional buildings, they have some characteristics, such as reduced construction time, higher safety during construction if compared to traditional buildings and modularity, that make them competitive in specific applications, that are undergoing substantial increase importance and market relevance. However, in a context where the transition towards a low-carbon energy system is quickly becoming an important target of scientific efforts and research, prefabricated buildings, as well as any other type of building, will have a key…

To Assess the Validity of the Transfer Function Method: A Neural Model for the Optimal Choice of Conduction Transfer Functions

2010

This paper presents a new mathematical approach applied to the Conduction Transfer Functions (CTFs) of a multilayered wall to predict the reliability of building simula- tions based upon them. Such a procedure can be used to develop a decision support system that identifies the best condition to calculate the best CTFs set. This is a critical point at the core of ASHRAE calculation methodology founded on the Transfer Function Method (TFM). To evaluate the perfor- mance of different CTFs sets, the authors built a large amount of data, subsequently employed to train a Neural Network Classifier (NNC) able to predict the reliability of a simulation without performing it. For this purpose all th…