Papers by Marco Pietrobon
The energy savings achievable in the end-use space cooling depend on a number of variables relate... more The energy savings achievable in the end-use space cooling depend on a number of variables related to the building envelope, the plants and to some extent the behavior of occupants. They are hence complex to evaluate and consequently often underrepresented in designers, energy managers and policy makers decisions. This paper is based on some results of the European Commission supported project KeepCool2. It discusses a methodology for bottom-up assessment of the energy savings related to “sustainable summer comfort” solutions: to do this, reference base case building typologies in offices and commercial sector are analyzed in 5 european typical climates, and dynamic simulations are used to calculate the reductions in the energy needs for cooling which can be achieved by specific retrofit actions (e.g. additions of effective solar protections, increased thermal insulation, day-time and nighttime mechanical ventilation, natural ventilation, low solar absorbance surfaces and others); a...
Policies to enforce the transition to nZEB: Synthesis report and policy recommendations from the project ENTRANZE
Heating and cooling energy demand and loads for building types in different countries of the EU
Energy Procedia, 2014
The Mediterranean climate distinguishes for a mild heating season and a hot (and usually dry) coo... more The Mediterranean climate distinguishes for a mild heating season and a hot (and usually dry) cooling season. All along the year solar radiation is plentiful and the daily range of temperature during the summer is large, due to dry and clear conditions. This environment allowed to design and build a zero energy concept building (a detached single family house) on the basis of passive heating and cooling technologies, supported, when required, by short time active conditioning. The design process was optimized by extensive energy simulations, resulting in an optimal energy balance and favorable thermal comfort conditions along the year. The building is instrumented with an accurate building automation control system, and a number of sensors for a detailed energy and environmental monitoring. The monitoring equipment and framework, have been devised to support further detailed studies to improve the design concept and to provide accurate and comprehensive data to the scientific community.
In many countries the availability of data about the energy performance of low-energy buildings i... more In many countries the availability of data about the energy performance of low-energy buildings is quite limited and this lack of information refrains potential investments on green buildings. In 2004, in order to contribute to generate and collect reliable performance data, the European Commission launched the GreenBuilding (GB) Programme aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in both existing and new non-residential buildings on a voluntary basis. Under the umbrella of the GB Programme, the GreenBuilding Plus (GB+) Project operated from 2007 to 2010. One of the activities developed in the project was the creation of a European database on building energy performance. The authors developed a Data Collection Tool, which was used by building owners and their consultants to provide a detailed description of the candidate buildings and their energy efficiency and renewable energy features. In this paper, we present a selection of the results of a statistical analysis of the detailed data of 85 green buildings. The main outputs of the GB+ project are: the total primary energy saved by the 85 buildings amounted to about 115 000 MWh per year and the average percentage of savings is 54%, hence much higher than 25% requested by the GB Programme.
Applied Mechanics and Materials, 2014
Earth-to-Air Heat Exchangers (EAHE) represent a relatively simple technology that can be easily c... more Earth-to-Air Heat Exchangers (EAHE) represent a relatively simple technology that can be easily coupled with traditional HVAC systems as well as with hybrid systems in order to exploit the thermal capacity of the ground. The air is pre-heated in the cold season and pre-cooled in the warm season through the EAHE, thus smoothing the peak loads and reducing the primary energy consumption. The present paper presents an experimental set-up of an EAHE implemented in a rural area in the Sicily region, focusing on the selection of the type of soils and the characteristics of the monitoring system installed to collect information on the actual energy performance of the EAHE.
Advanced Materials Research, 2013
In many countries the availability of data about the energy performance of low-energy buildings i... more In many countries the availability of data about the energy performance of low-energy buildings is quite limited and this lack of information refrains potential investments on green buildings. In 2004, in order to contribute to generate and collect reliable performance data, the European Commission launched the GreenBuilding (GB) Programme aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in both existing and new non-residential buildings on a voluntary basis. Under the umbrella of the GB Programme, the GreenBuilding Plus (GB+) Project operated from 2007 to 2010. One of the activities developed in the project was the creation of a European database on building energy performance. The authors developed a Data Collection Tool, which was used by building owners and their consultants to provide a detailed description of the candidate buildings and their energy efficiency and renewable energy features. In this paper, we present a selection of the results of a statistical analysis of the detailed data of 85 green buildings. The main outputs of the GB+ project are: the total primary energy saved by the 85 buildings amounted to about 115 000 MWh per year and the average percentage of savings is 54%, hence much higher than 25% requested by the GB Programme.
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Papers by Marco Pietrobon