The recent recast of the EPBD aims to accelerate building renovation rates, reduce GHG emissions and energy consumption, and promote the uptake of renewable energy in buildings. In addition, the Renovation Wave for Europe strategy, which sets the goal of doubling renovation rates in the next 10 years, would move the attention from the single building to the whole building stock. In the current context of joint efforts towards the decarbonization of buildings, integrating occupants’ comfort and health with latest technological advancements for energy efficiency is at the centre of the research. The main research question is to develop, implement, and validate methods and tools able to perform a holistic assessment of energy efficient buildings. Aspects related to energy, costs, comfort, environmental impact, and resilience are addressed.
The research activity investigates the following items:
- models for the performance assessment of advanced components of building construction and HVAC systems, and of the whole building, including IEQ;
- use of simulation-based optimization methods for investigating design optimization options, model calibration, assessment of the effects of uncertainties, and energy management optimization options;
- methods and tools able to assess the energy performance of building stocks and community systems, and to foresee refurbishment trends;
- new approaches to thermal comfort (Personal Comfort Models) through measurements and dynamic simulation.
Supervisors:
Prof. Vincenzo Corrado
Prof. Enrico Fabrizio