Buildings energy efficiency: Interventions analysis under a smart cities approach

Abstract

Most of the world's population lives in urban areas and in inefficient buildings under the energy point of view. Starting from these assumptions, there is the need to identify methodologies and innovations able to improve social development and the quality of life of people living in cities. Smart cities can be a viable solution. The methodology traditionally adopted to evaluate building energy efficiency starts from the structure's energy demands analysis and the demands reduction evaluation. Consequently, the energy savings is assessed through a cascade of interventions. Regarding the building envelope, the first intervention is usually related to the reduction of the thermal transmittance value, but there is also the need to emphasize the building energy savings through other parameters, such as the solar gain factor and dye solar absorbance coefficients. In this contribution, a standard building has been modeled by means of the well-known dynamic software, TRNSYS. This study shows a parametrical analysis through which it is possible to evaluate the effect of each single intervention and, consequently, its influence on the building energy demand. Through this analysis, an intervention chart has been carried out, aiming to assess the intervention efficiency starting from the percentage variation of energy demands. © 2014 by the authors.