Transforming a Historic Public Office Building in the Centre of Rome into nZEB: Limits and Potentials

Fabrizio Cumo, Fabio Nardecchia, Sofia Agostinelli and Flavio Rosa
Additional contact information
Fabrizio Cumo: CITERA Interdepartmental Centre, Sapienza University of Rome, 00197 Rome, Italy
Fabio Nardecchia: Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering (DIAEE), Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
Sofia Agostinelli: Department of Astronautical, Electrical and Energy Engineering (DIAEE), Sapienza University of Rome, 00184 Rome, Italy
Flavio Rosa: CITERA Interdepartmental Centre, Sapienza University of Rome, 00197 Rome, Italy

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: According to the last census of 2019, about two million Italian buildings are more than 100 years old. Building energy retrofitting involves a diverse mix of influencing factors, depending on history, intended use, and construction techniques. This paper aims to assess the energy needs of a historic building by evaluating the variability of climatic conditions and internal loads, as well as the thermal capacity of the building envelope. The energy analysis was conducted using dynamic simulation systems (TRNSYS). The purpose of the study is to provide an analysis of the current energy conditions of the building to identify the main critical issues and suggest the most suitable interventions to be implemented. All the transformations were conducted to meet the nZEB requirements and evaluate technical and economic feasibility, compatibility with architectural and landscape constraints, and large-scale replicability. Specifically, to reach the proposed targets, a 36 kWp PV system was implemented for an area of 210 m 2 , in addition to the Air Handling Unit (AHU) already present. The profit index is above the unit, and it yields a time range between three and four years. Therefore, fully respecting the energy performance parameters required by the Italian legislation, the study demonstrated the unattainability of the nZEB class for a listed building.

Keywords: nZEB; historical buildings; TRNSYS; buildings retrofitting; buildings office; economic feasibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/697/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/697/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:3:p:697-:d:727796

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().