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

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 provid...

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Main Authors: Carla Balocco, Alessandro Colaianni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-06-01
Series:Sustainability
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/2054
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spelling doaj-b88c3bd2e9af4a669b2ac490480882a82020-11-25T02:41:24ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502018-06-01106205410.3390/su10062054su10062054Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in FlorenceCarla Balocco0Alessandro Colaianni1Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Florence, ItalyDepartment of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, via Santa Marta 3, 50139 Florence, ItalyItaly 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.http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/2054cultural heritageschool buildingenergy sustainabilityenergy refurbishmentdynamic simulation
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Carla Balocco
Alessandro Colaianni
spellingShingle Carla Balocco
Alessandro Colaianni
Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence
Sustainability
cultural heritage
school building
energy sustainability
energy refurbishment
dynamic simulation
author_facet Carla Balocco
Alessandro Colaianni
author_sort Carla Balocco
title Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence
title_short Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence
title_full Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence
title_fullStr Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of Energy Sustainable Operations on a Historical Building. The Dante Alighieri High School in Florence
title_sort assessment of energy sustainable operations on a historical building. the dante alighieri high school in florence
publisher MDPI AG
series Sustainability
issn 2071-1050
publishDate 2018-06-01
description 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.
topic cultural heritage
school building
energy sustainability
energy refurbishment
dynamic simulation
url http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/2054
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