Anagrafe della ricerca

The aim of the research is to define a framework for the certification of the energy performance of new and existing livestock housing units. The energy performance is the measured or estimated amount of energy that is consumed for ventilation, heating, lighting and – if present – cooling of an indoor environment which is controlled for the animal production and wellbeing. The energy performance certificate is recognised by a legal person and includes the energy performance of a building calculated according to a methodology based on a general framework. The certificate contains not only information about the actual energy performance, but also suggestions about the possible retrofitting actions that can be taken in order to improve the energy performance and their feasibility (simple pay back period, energy savings). The certification is the process of gathering all the data necessary to perform the estimation, computing the amount of energy consumed, classifying the energy performance and completing the certificate. Even though a standardized procedure for the energy certification of new and existing buildings exists at European level (2002/91/CE Directive and the following EPBD recast of 2010), the complexity of a livestock housing is such that it is not possible to simply use the same approach that is used for civil building in order to compute the energy performance for the climate control (ventilation, heating, lighting, etc.), classify and certify the housing unit.