Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence

Carla Balocco and Alessandro Colaianni
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Carla Balocco: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Florence, Italy
Alessandro Colaianni: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Florence, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: Italy has a huge cultural heritage, most of which consists of historical buildings that have changed their original function and use over time. The complex question of building and plant system refurbishment and retrofitting mainly derives from this crucial aspect. The aim of this paper is to provide a simple provisional tool useful for the assessment of efficient, energy sustainable refurbishment solutions for historical buildings and their plant systems. The Dante Alighieri high school (with an important music department) in Florence was the case study. We proposed a method based on dynamic simulations that allows plant design guarantying indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort, as well as energy efficiency, but, at the same time offering reversibility and mobility as well as ease of management and maintenance. Transient simulations of building-plant system were specifically addressed dynamic control and adaptive proportional regulation, so as to ensure that the plant adapts to the change of building and indoor environment thermo-physics and thermo-hygrometric parameters. Results showed that important refurbishment and retrofitting operations for energy saving are possible and effective for historical buildings if they are oriented to sustainability—i.e., low environmental impact, indoor thermo-hygrometric conditions, ventilation, air quality, and user wellbeing improvement—in compliance with preventive protection constraints.

Keywords: cultural heritage; school building; energy sustainability; energy refurbishment; dynamic simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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